Barbara Birkeland

Barbara Birkeland, age 90, passed away on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at Lake Harris Health Center in Leesburg, FL. Memorial services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday (October 15th) at Kingo Lutheran Church in Fosston with the Rev. John Dalen officiating. Interment will be in Kingo Lutheran Cemetery, Fosston. Family will greet friends for one hour prior to the service on Saturday at the church. Arrangements are with the Carlin-Hoialmen Funeral Home of Fosston and messages of condolence may be sent at carlinhoialmen.com.Barbara Louise Nelson was born on March 1, 1920 in Bangor, Maine to Arthur and Mary Nelson. She was raised in Bangor, graduated from Bangor High School, and attended Husson College. In 1943 she enlisted in the US Army and was assigned to the Army Medical Corps in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. After her honorable discharge at the end of the war in 1945, she returned home to Bangor and began working at Dow Air Field. There she met and married Frederick Birkeland in August of 1949. Together they raised three daughters traveling across the country and overseas as they accompanied Fred in his military career. After Fred's retirement, they moved to Fosston in 1973 where Barbara was employed at Midway Boarding Care as a Certified Nurse Assistant until she retired. She moved to Florida in 2004. She is survived by her daughters, Mary (James) Laws of Fruitland Park, FL and Christine (James) Brademan of Placida, FL; her grandchildren, Erik Tranby of Duluth, MN, Elizabeth (Jonathan) Klemer of Boise, ID and Frederick Crabtree of Pensacola, FL and four great-grandchildren Griffin, Anya, William and Grace. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Frederick, six brothers, two sisters, her daughter, Ingrid and granddaughter, Anna.