DiAnn & Gary Svenson Stories

 DiAnn felt blessed by many wonderful aunts and uncles in her life on the Ehler, Hageman and Wenthold family connections nurtured through her beautiful Centennial Road farm house and Iowa farm girl magic. A particularly close lifelong connection for DiAnn was with her aunt and godmother,  Marie (Ehler) Frana, her dad Felix's sister. The above photos of the two of them are from DiAnn's 1961 high school graduation and an unknown date for Marie's photo, which was among DiAnn's mother Bertha's possessions when she passed in 1996. DiAnn moved in for a time with her aunt Marie and their family following the terrible, young loss of Marie's husband George, father to the eight wonderful children DiAnn came to think of as her own brothers and sisters. A legacy of intelligence, hard work and determination was passed down from aunt/godmother to niece in Marie and DiAnn. The physical and personality similarities of these two women is something to celebrate. 

 Just shy of 12 years ago, Gary D. Svenson's family, including DiAnn, published the tribute video above to celebrate what would have been Gary's 70th birthday. The video also provides an update on projects completed with memorial donations received at: the Iowa State Fair (memorial stone supporting fairground renovation efforts),  Nordic Fest (their own ceremonial flags in the picture constructed by Carl Svenson at 8:17 in the video) Winneshiek County Fair (tree and bench, bench is in the process of being updated after years of use)  United States, Iowa and Norway flags installed at the Highway 9 and Montgomery Street entrance to Decorah - the "east" entrance - Gary being a lifelong east sider - an idea Gary mentioned shortly before his own passing The Iowa Firefighters Memorial in Coralville (new benches) DiAnn joins Gary's story at 2:13 in the video. Enjoy these cherished songs and both of their memories celebrated in this video!   

DiAnn and Gary Svenson loved the Winneshiek County Fair. In addition to their decades of joint work on the fair, DiAnn loved entering fair flowers, food and more in the years that followed her husband's retirement as fair secretary.  DiAnn especially loved her time spent at the Winneshiek County Fair with one of her friendship soul mates, Nancy Evans and the entire family connected to the wonderful Evans United Shows.  Among the work now involved in the working on an estate, DiAnn's belongings include the note above in her same meticulous handwriting in which many received thoughtful notes from her.  With the help of Roz Weis, who is among the wonderful team of humans at the Decorah Newspapers , it appears that on July 12, 2012, the Winneshiek County Fair hosted a Meat on a Stick contest in the music tent at the fairgrounds.  With the help of research from Edna Schrandt and Ken Keune, it appears the 2012 Meat on a Stick contest was sponsored by Hacker, Nelson & Co., P.C .

Rachel (Svenson) Williams, DiAnn's niece, remembers her aunt joining a chilly October 2017 celebration of life for beloved cousin Amy J. Sola , as pictured above. Images of colder weather remind us of soup, and Rachel shares a favorite:  C ream of Potato Soup - DiAnn Svenson   6 cups peeled (or unpeeled), diced potatoes 2 diced onions 2 diced carrots 1 stalk diced celery 4 chicken bouillon cubes or 1 tbsp chicken base 1 tbsp parsley flakes 5 cups water 1/4 tsp pepper Place all ingredients in crock pot on hi 10 to 12 hours.  (Consider microwaving vegetables for a few minutes prior to putting in crock pot).   Add last hour: 1 - 12 oz  evaporated milk, 1 cup whipping cream, or 1 pint 1/2 & 1/2   Options Add 1/2 lb raw turkey or chicken breast or  1 to 2 cups diced ham Crumbled bacon  - shredded cheese to garnish top Thanks, Rachel for sharing! What's your favorite DiAnn recipe?

  My heart is broken. DiAnn was my cousin, sister I never had, bridesmaid, and best friend. We would not get to see each other very often. When we did it was hard to say goodbye. Now it is even harder to say it. DiAnn’s commitment to her church and community was immeasurable. She was not afraid to do hard work. Even when her health was declining she was still taking care of everyone else. DiAnn & Gary's home was always open to family and friends. You knew there would be delicious food and something to take home. She adopted her nieces and nephews as if they were her own.   They were so involved in the Nordic Fest and Winneshiek County Fair. DiAnn talked me into going on the Tilt a Whirl saying it would be fun. She led me astray on that because we had to convince the 0perator to try and stop it. We laughed about that for a long time.   My husband being from Ossian and I from Decorah we had lots to talk about. We shared a love for local sports, Iowa Hawkeyes, and espe

  When DiAnn and Gary married in 1972, Betty Busta served as maid of honor following years of the two of them, as DiAnn described it "running around" together. Their laughter when together brought joy.  These two Iowa farm girls loved each other dearly and had similar stories. DiAnn missed Betty since her passing in 2017 . In the above photo, Betty rejoined DiAnn and Gary for a special surprise 25th wedding anniversary gathering in 1997 at St. Benedict's Church where the laughter again flowed.  Cheers to the memories of original friends, DiAnn and Betty! 

DiAnn and all her fellow food service professionals at Luther College Dining Services dedicated themselves via a flurry of hard work on the wonderful food options decades of Luther students enjoyed.  DiAnn loved serving in that role and time with her Luther colleagues. Her role aligned with her deep cooking and baking skills . One day, these hard working women paused for some fun while an array of toilets were being switched out in the Main Building at Luther where the cafeteria is located. Deepest thanks to Joan Beckman for sharing these beautiful reminders of the value of balancing hard work with fun.  Pictured above are Leah McCrea, DiAnn, Beth Phillips and Milly Ramlo, with some of the many student workers DiAnn enjoyed just off camera. Time frame is estimated to be 2005. Rumor has it that more fun photos of this day may exist. Thank you to DiAnn’s Luther Dining Services colleagues for being a joy to work with! DiAnn now joins many a wonderful Luther colleague in heaven. May

  "We’ll always remember the gracious hospitality of Gary and DiAnn! All the times we were down to check on our farm & then able to visit with Gary & DiAnn - we never left Decorah (on our drive back to Minneapolis) with a hungry stomach & our hearts were also full with great stories & memories! In recent years, we also loved visiting with DiAnn at Mabe’s Pizza, which was also a tradition when meeting with Mary Jane & Jim Suchan (up from Cedar Rapids) around Christmas. Thank you so much to the entire Svenson family for their hospitality & cherished time together all of these years! Until we all meet again, take care & God Bless!" Sincerely, the late Jim Wenthold as well as Kathy Wenthold, Kristi Wenthold Dougherty, and Dave Wenthold

As mentioned in her obituary, DiAnn's baking and cooking skills for large swaths of people remain legendary. In recent years, she developed a bit more of a sweet tooth, enjoying more desserts herself when she could eat.  It was an honor for the family to work with Ossian's own Norske Anfinson on catering of the desserts for DiAnn's funeral luncheon. In addition to Norske's own legendary angel food options, if you were at the lunch, you may have tried a bit of the dessert pictured above. This berry, pretzel and cream cheese delight was recreated from among DiAnn's favorites by Norske as a special personalization for the luncheon . The tasty dessert offered complex options with its salty sweetness. As per usual, Norske knocked it out of the park.  Incredible dessert. Great conversations. DiAnn would have been proud! 

 DiAnn's June 10, 2021 funeral marked significant reopening steps after the pandemic, marking: 226 people attending Mass, one of the largest crowds at St. Benedict's since early 2020 The first funeral Mass to be able to have a luncheon since early 2020 An early funeral where floral bouquets could again be shared with the wonderful residents at Aase Haugen Home, Eastern Star, and Wellington Place in Decorah. Although DiAnn got her wish to stay at home until the end, she would have loved bringing brightness to her loved ones in these facilities.  Some may remember the passing of DiAnn's own mother, Bertha Catherine (Wenthold) Ehler in January 1996. Bertha's January 26, 1996 funeral Mass time was moved up due to a significant snowstorm impacting the area.  While wading through what felt like knee-deep snow on the way to the St. Francis de Sales cemetery, DiAnn noted the significant weather and proclaimed, " It's going to be 100 degrees on the day that they bury m

Remarks written and delivered by DiAnn's daughter Dawn at her funeral today Thank you everyone for gathering to celebrate DiAnn, my mom. And there is SO much to celebrate. DiAnn will always be the epitome of an Iowa farm girl: hard-working, modest, honest, kind and loyal, interested in learning and teaching, absolutely in love with kids, and truly dedicated to helping people. And of course, she cooked and baked up a storm with a stamina that matched the seemingly never-ending derecho that hit Eastern Iowa last August 10. How poetic that today we get to have one of the first funeral lunches in Decorah since COVID began, as Father will announce near the end of Mass. Being the epitome of an Iowa farm girl, Mom may be dancing in heaven over this shift back to safe social connections, despite today’s heat. As we all know, she never wanted anyone to not be well-fed and happy with her dedicated efforts at meals, snacks and more. After the hundreds of funeral lunches she worked her Iowa fa