Ruth Strom

Ruth Strom, age 101, of Erskine, MN, passed away on Tuesday (May 29th) at the Pioneer Memorial Care Center in Erskine. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday (June 1st) at the Carlin-Hoialmen Funeral Home in Erskine with the Rev. Timothy Lundeen officiating. Interment will be in Fairview Cemetery, rural Erskine. Visitation will be held for one hour prior to the service on Friday at the funeral home. Arrangements are with the Carlin-Hoialmen Funeral Home of Erskine. Ruth Strom was born on a farm near McIntosh on December 1, 1905, to parents Tobias Martin Strom and Olga Marie Tranby Strom. She was the middle child of five daughters born to the Stroms from 1902 to 1909.On May 29, 2007, Ruth passed away at the Pioneer Memorial Care Center, Erskine, at the age of 101, five months and twenty-eight days.Ruth, who attended school only until the eighth grade, left her parents' rural home when she was fifteen years old, moving in with a family south of McIntosh, where she took care of three children, ages two to four, until they entered college. The McManus family and Ruth remained close friends throughout her life.Ruth's working years were devoted primarily to caring for others. After leaving Minnesota, Ruth worked with children at a mission in Oakland, California; after which she was employed at a children's home in Chicago, Illinois, with some 150 young people. Later, for twenty years, Ruth was employed by a nursing home in Minneapolis; and, briefly, at a hospital in the Twin Cities area.Ruth also worked in Duluth; and in Mobridge, South Dakota, with Rev. Phil and Judy (Skogerboe) Hyland, who served as missionaries for many years. She ended her working career in Fosston, where she was an employee of a nursing home for five years.Ruth enjoyed reading (more than fifty books a year, even after her 101st birthday), and was especially accomplished in crocheting, knitting, and growing flowers. A longtime member of Grace Lutheran Church in Erskine, her Christian faith was always very important to Ruth throughout her life.She was preceded in death by her parents (her mother in 1918, and her father in 1938); and her four sisters-Inga Raaen, Emma Howe, Agnes Vann, and Olga Olson.Survivors include four nieces-Evangeline (Vannie) Howe Espeseth, Dolores Howe Santelli, Marge Nelson Berger, Mardelle Olson Rygh-and one nephew, Ron Howe. Her surviving cousins are Velma Tranby Ward, Arnold Tranby, Melvin Tranby, and Valborg Tranby Flagstad.Pallbearers will be Rev. Peter Satren, Rev. Berton Hushagen, Jim Espeseth, Ron Howe, Keith Stuhaug, and Jim Berger.