Published in The Enterprise, June 6, 2003

LUELLA K. NIELSEN, 83

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Former Blair resident Luella Kaeding Nielsen, 83, died June 1, 2003 at the Good Samaritan Home in Albert Lea, Minn.

Funeral services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 7, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 501 S. Washington Avenue in Albert Lea, Minn. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, Jun e 9, in Trinity Chapel on the Dana College campus.

Luella Kaeding Nielsen was born Aug. 23, 1919 in Mankato, Minn., to Meta Wolter Kaeding. Because her father, Arthur Kaeding, died of Spanish influenza before she was born, the only father she knew was John Nielsen whom her mother married in 1924.

She began school in Mankato but moved to Albert Lea, Minn., with her parents in 1926. She completed her grade and high school education in Albert Lea, graduating as valedictorian of her class in 1937. She continued her education at Dana College in Blair, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1942, and at the University of Minnesota from which she received a master of arts degree. She completed post-graduate work at both the University of Wyoming and the University of Vermont.

She taught high school both at Pender and Blair, and then was a professor of English at Dana College from 1958 – 1986 when she retired as professor emeritus. She continued to teach part time at Dana until the early 1990s. Following her retirement she took great pride in serving as a volunteer necrologist for the Danish Immigrant Archive at Dana.

During her academic career, she was active in the American Association of University Professors; the American Association of University Women; the Midwest Modern Language Association; the Washington County Teachers Association; the Lutheran Daughters of First Lutheran Church of Blair; and the Washington County Democrat Party.

Teaching, reading and travel were her great delights, winning her the appreciation of decades of high school and college students. For her career as a teacher, she was named a Distinguished Alumna of Dana College in 1973.

She is survived by two brothers and sisters-in-law, John and Elizabeth Nielsen of Blair and James and Christine Nielsen of Munster, Ind.; two sisters and brothers-in-law, Eleanor and Donald Schou of Albert Lea, Minn., and Margaret and Walter (Bill) Rodenburg of Centerville, Ohio; brothers-in-law Gary Hansen of Bailys Harbor, Wis., and Michael Pedersen of Lee’s Summit, Mo.; 29 nieces and nephews; 27 great-nieces and nephews; and one great-great-nephew.

She was preceded in death by a brother, Norman; and two sisters, Marion Hansen and Elizabeth Anne Pedersen.

Memorials may be designated for Dana College, the Danish Immigrant Archive or Trinity Lutheran Church in Albert Lea.