Dagney Pauline Christenson

Dagney Pauline (née Trettevik) Christenson was born in Seattle, Washington, on December 5, 1927. She was the third of five children born to Fred and Gunda (née Rasmussen) Trettevik, second- and first-generation immigrants respectively from the rugged coastal region of western Norway. Her father, a carpenter, built the small house in Ballard, Washington, in which Dagney and her four brothers grew up during the Depression era. Her mother was a nurse. Dagney was baptized and confirmed into the Christian faith in a Norwegian Lutheran congregation that originally began as a small mission prayer group that met weekly in the Trettevik family home. The prayer group eventually outgrew the Trettevik home, moved into a rented church building, called its own pastor, and is known today as Rock of Ages Lutheran Brethren Church.

Dagney’s mother was known for her love for the Lord, her passion for world missions, and her practice of hospitality. One Sunday in the final year of WWII, when Dagney was in her mid-teens, her mother invited a young naval seaman named David Christenson home from church for dinner. David and Dagney found themselves washing and drying the dishes together after the meal. Though circumstances soon led them apart, their paths would converge again several years later when both were pursuing college degrees in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

During her final two years of high school, Dagney attended Hillcrest Lutheran Academy in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, as a boarding student. At Hillcrest, she quickly established a reputation as a star athlete. During her senior year, she was both Girls’ Athletic Director and President of the Girls’ Athletic Association. Following graduation from Hillcrest in 1946 as class salutatorian, Dagney stayed on in Fergus Falls to attend the Lutheran Brethren Bible School for one year, giving her a deeper understanding of the Bible and her own living faith.

In the fall of 1947, Dagney entered Lutheran Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in Minneapolis to pursue a nursing degree. One day, while working as a nurse trainee in the hospital’s maternity ward, she was approached by a young man who looked somewhat familiar. It was David Christenson. He had come to the hospital that day to visit his older sister, who had just given birth to a baby boy. He invited Dagney out on a date and she accepted. They played miniature golf on that first date. Dagney won, and David was hooked.

On June 16, 1951, just a few weeks after Dagney graduated from Deaconess as a registered nurse, the two were married back at Rock of Ages Lutheran Brethren Church in Seattle. Over the next decade and a half, they were blessed with six children: Sandra Kae (1953), Daniel Craig (1957), David Alan (1958), Joel Robert (1959), Brenda Lynne (1962), and Jonathon Mark (1965).

Their first home together was back in Fergus Falls MN. As Dave was completing a Master of Divinity degree at Lutheran Brethren Seminary in preparation for full-time pastoral ministry, Dagney worked at Lake Region Hospital as a surgical nurse. They lived in a small apartment up in “the castle,” where Dave was employed part-time as the Hillcrest Boys’ Dean.

During Dave’s first two decades of pastoral ministry following graduation from seminary in 1953, Dagney stayed at home to focus on the needs of their growing family, although she returned to work as a nurse at several points when finances were stretched. “Pastor Dave” pastored Lutheran Brethren congregations in Ferndale WA (1953-1958), Minneapolis MN (1961-1968), and Lynnwood WA (1968-1972). During those years, he and Dagney also served overseas for two years as missionaries with Lutheran Brethren World Missions in Akita, Japan (1959-1961), where Dave taught full-time at Tohoku Bible School. In addition to keeping her family well-clothed, well-fed, and well-loved during these years, Dagney also took an active role in women’s ministry events at church and graciously welcomed a steady stream of guests and visitors into her home for carefully planned and prepared dinners, luncheons, bridal showers, receptions, and Sunday dinners.

During their last two decades of full-time congregational ministry before Dave’s semi-retirement in 1993, Dagney resumed RN work outside the home—first as a staff nurse at Lake Region Hospital in Fergus Falls MN (1973-1979), and then as a staff nurse at Crista Senior Living in Shoreline WA (1979-1993). With the salary she earned, she and Dave were able to build and then pay off the mortgage on the beloved home in Lynnwood where the extended family would share so many cherished times with them over the years.

As her children gradually left home, married, and started families of their own, “Grandma Christenson” never missed a birthday, graduation, or anniversary, preparing cakes, presents and special meals for those living nearby, and sending cards and gifts to those living in other parts of the country or world. In their retirement years, nothing gave Grandma and Grandpa Christenson greater joy than welcoming their children, sons- and daughters-in-law, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren into their home in Lynnwood for laughter-filled family gatherings and celebrations. Grandma Christenson continued to prepare her trademark, multi-course Thanksgiving meals and Christmas dinners well into her 80s.

Grandma Christenson was preceded in death by her father and mother, Fred and Gunda Trettevik of Seattle WA, her husband of 69 years, David Christenson of Lynnwood WA, and three brothers, Fred (Joyce) Trettevik of Bothell WA, Roy (Lois) Trettevik of Seattle WA, and Herbert (Rosella) Trettevik of Shoreline WA. She is survived by: her six children, Sandra Ward of Sammamish, WA, Daniel (Ruth) Christenson of Mt. Bethel PA, David (Eunice) Christenson of Fergus Falls MN, Joel (Elizabeth) Christenson of Fergus Falls MN, Brenda (Frederick) Stoutland of Calabasas CA, and Jonathon (Barbara) Christenson of Bothell WA; her twenty-seven grandchildren; her thirty-seven great-grandchildren; and her brother Gerald (Carol) Trettevik. May the Lord be glorified in and through the life, death, and memory of his beloved daughter, Dagney Pauline Christenson.

The family requests that memorial gifts be made out to "Church of the Lutheran Brethren" and designated to The David and Dagney Christenson Endowment Fund for Lutheran Brethren International Mission.

Funeral Service to be held Saturday, December 14, 11:00AM at Maple Park Lutheran Church 17620 60th Ave W. Lynnwood.