Amanda R. Knudson

Amanda R. Knudson, 95 of Anoka, MN formerly of the Devils Lake area passed away on October 16, 2007 at Mercy Hospital in Anoka with many of her family surrounding her. Funeral Services for Amanda will be held on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Devils Lake. Rev. Harold Ovre will officiate and burial will be in the Devils Lake Cemetery. Friends may call at the Gilbertson Funeral Home, Devils Lake on Tuesday, October 23rd from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. Visitation on Wednesday will be at the church one hour prior to the funeral service. Serving as Casket Bearers for Amanda will be Brian Knudson, Mark Knudson, Keith Didier, John Knudson, Morgan Walford and Ronald Stubbe. Music will be provided by Russell and Lynda Pearson. The family requests that memorials be directed to the Hospice Care Program of the donor’s choice. Amanda was born December 5, 1911 to Herman and Helena Nelson in Starkweather, ND. After moving to Devils Lake and to a farm near Tokio, ND, she returned to Starkweather to live with her Aunt Emma and Uncle Sam Erickstad while attending high school. After graduating, she worked for various families doing household work prior to obtaining a job at the Fort Totten Officers Club Mess Hall. She was hired by Kathryn Welk (Lawrence Welk’s cousin) who was manager of the Officers Club at the time. In addition to waitressing there, she baked all the pies and bread for the dining room. Anyone who has tasted her famous “buns” knows that she had special skills in baking. After Kathryn Welk left, Amanda became the manager of the Officers Club. While working at the Club, along with her future sister-in-law, Anne Melin Knudson, she lived in a room above the dining room. That building is now part of the Fort Totten National Historical site. Her former room is now one of the “bed and breakfast” room and is dedicated to the Knudson family. While working at the Officers Club, she met Ervind Knudson whom she married on January 11, 1935. After her marriage, she and Ervind moved to a farm north of Fort Totten where their three children, Eloise, Harlan and Dennis were born. Their final move was to a farm near Ziebach Pass, north of Fort Totten where they lived and worked through the years. Between the years of 1959 and 1978, they had spent each winter together at their second home in Apache Junction, Arizona. Following Ervind’s death on March 31, 1978, in Arizona, Amanda continued to spend her winters at Apache Junction for an additional 23 years. She made many trips to and from her Arizona home to spend time with her children and their families. She lived with her daughter, Eloise during many summers and spent one year living with her granddaughter, Carla and her husband, Tom in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. After her health deteriorated in recent years, she lived in an Assisted Living facility in Anoka, near her daughter, Eloise where she enjoyed many visits from her children, grandchildren and their children. Amanda will be missed by her loving family, which enjoyed her until 50 days prior to her 96th birthday. Amanda has been blessed with three loving children and ten grandchildren: Harlan Knudson and his wife, Beverly of Rancho Palos Verdes, California and their children, Mark, Brian and Eric Dennis Knudson and his wife, Marlyn of Woodland, California and their child, Denise and step-children, Mike, Brenda and Jeanine Eloise Didier and her husband, Richard of Anoka, Minnesota and their children, Keith, Carla and Anita She has also been blessed with 10 great grandchildren and a sister, Edna Wolfe of Coon Rapids, Minnesota Amanda was preceded in death by her father, Herman in 1948 and mother, Helena in 1964; husband, Ervind in 1978 and brother, Emil Nelson in 1985.