Wanda Sondergaard, 104, of Brookings, died Friday, Jan. 13, 2017, at the United Living Community.
Funeral services are at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Eidsness Funeral Home in Brookings. Burial is in Danebod Lutheran Cemetery in Tyler, Minn. Visitation is one hour prior to the funeral service on Wednesday.
Wanda was born on Aug. 8, 1912, to Hans and Anne (Wogensen) Pedersen, in Lincoln County, Tyler, Minn. Wanda was baptized and confirmed in Danebod Lutheran Church, in Tyler. She was raised on the family farm west of Tyler, Minn. She attended both grade and high school at Tyler Public School. Wanda also attended and graduated from Nettleton Commercial College in Sioux Falls.
On Oct. 25, 1947, Wanda married Henry Sondergaard at the Little Brown Church In The Vale, in Nashua, Iowa. During their married life they lived in Tyler, in an apartment above the insurance office that Henry owned. After Henry died in the spring of 1966, Wanda moved to Brookings and worked at SDSU as a secretary to the vice president. She worked there until her retirement in 1977.
Wanda was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Brookings, joining the church when she moved to town after Henry’s passing. In the earlier years she played hand bells at the church. She was a long time member of The Order of the Eastern Star, having received her “60 year” pin. Wanda served as an organist for Eastern Star in Brookings for many years and also played for the Eastern Star in White..
She enjoyed knitting, and belonged to a sewing club after her retirement. Wanda liked to read and loved to dance. Her family was important to her, as were her many friends. Wanda met her “special friend,” Marlene Pottratz, and has spent the last 30 years of her life in Marlene’s company, until she became a resident of the United Living Community in Brookings on June 11, 2015. Together they enjoyed traveling on many trips and tours.
Wanda had the pleasure of celebrating over 100 years of life and saw many changes during that time.
Wanda is survived by her special friend Marlene Pottratz of Elkton; a nephew’s wife, Marilyn Pedersen, and her family, of Brookings; a nephew, Robert (Anne) Pedersen, and his family of Redlands, Calif.; a niece, Carol (Rod) Moorehead and son Dane, of Sisters, Ore.; a nephew Gordon Pedersen, and his family, of Louisville, Colo., and a host of extended relatives and friends.
Over the years, Marlene’s family had also become Wanda’s family. She was very close to them and they considered her their family too. Those include Marlene’s three daughters, Carla (Barry) Tollefson of Elkton, Carla’s children, Emilie, (Ryan and Dafne), Ethan (Amy), Cody, and Carly; Lisa (Greg, Seth, Evan) Gawerecki of Verdi, Minn., Kendra (Aric, Aric II) Dominic (Cam); Amy (Jeremy, Dillon) Pottratz of Aurora, and son Daniel (Ella), as well as Marlene’s sister Marlys Landgren of Elkton, and brothers, Marlen Bergman, of Liberty, Mo., and Marv (Cheryl) Bergman of Zolfo Springs, Florida, and their families, and her special four legged friend, “Annie.”
She was preceded in death by her husband Henry, brothers Leo, Nis, and Roy, sisters Olivia and Deb, an infant brother, Leo, and two nephews, Curtis and James.
