Fern Rasmussen

Fern Leone Rasmussen died at the age of 97 on July 24, 2025. She was born in the small town of McIntosh in northern Minnesota on January 10, 1928.  She was the fifth of six children of Albert and Ida, whose parents had emigrated from Norway.  Along with all her siblings, she had an “American” name. Perhaps to embrace their new homeland, none of them were taught Norwegian.  Fern’s first job, at 4 years old, was accompanying her 6-year-old brother John to the railroad station to pick up the mail each day at 3 p.m.  She remembers that the treat was hearing the engineer blow the whistle for them.

Education was valued highly by her parents, who had had little formal schooling. Fern attended Concordia College in Moorhead, MN (’51) where she sang in the choir, frequently as a soloist.  Fern first jobs were as a church secretary.  She enjoyed playing the organ and singing in their choirs.

Her first teaching job was in Lakota, North Dakota where her choir won a special award.  Later she taught music in Sparta, WI for many years, her choirs again regularly winning awards. In 1967, she attended Augsburg College in Minneapolis to complete a degree in music education.

During her school vacations she regularly visited siblings who lived within driving distance.  She always brought her portable record player and stack of LPs which were of particular delight to her sister-in-law, Char, who was also a music major and whose family could not yet afford a record player. Fern remembers being stunned the first time Char’s children greeted her arrival with, “When are you leaving?”  Char explained that they needed to know how long they could enjoy the precious record player and an aunt who would sing and read stories to them.

After many years teaching, Fern was ready for a change. She moved to Whitewater, WI and enrolled in business classes at the University of Wisconsin.  Before long she decided this was not the right direction for her and accepted the job as secretary to the Athletic Department at the U.  As a side gig, she typed the final copy of graduate students’ dissertations. She enjoyed learning about their research, except when it was in mathematics.  She confessed that if it were “actual English” she could type up to 150 words a minute flawlessly – most of the time.

Later she worked as a secretary in a firm that helped people complete formal patents for their inventions, which was also fascinating to her. In addition, she was the pump organist at her church and volunteered in a Used-It-Again recycling shop. 

Fern was not one to follow the crowd. For example, she studied nutrition for many years and eventually thrived on a diet that was primarily fresh, raw food. After taking in a stray cat, she became a keen observer of cat behavior, telling her nieces and nephews about the antics of her many beloved cats over many years. 

Fern was unusually generous with her time.  Soon after her retirement, she moved to Northfield, MN for well over a year to care for her sister-in-law, Char, who had broken her leg and her brother, Gordon, who had dementia and was living at home. Ever the independent spirit, although many new Northfield friends and her family hoped she might settle there, Fern knew when it was time to return to her home in Whitewater. There she continued to be active in her church, volunteer, play the organ and even teach organ on occasion through her 80’s. In time, Fern’s declining health left her mostly housebound. Thanks to the wonderful support of friends, she was able to stay in her little trailer home, where she had lived for more than 50 years, for the remaining years of her life. 

Fern is preceded into death by her parents Albert Daniel and Ida Marie Rasmussen, all of her siblings, Gordon Eugene, Joan Adele, Donald Jerome, John Deforest, and Albert Lowell . She is survived by her sister-in-law, Wilma Rasmussen, her 18 nieces and nephews, Joyce Bush, her longtime friend and caretaker and many Whitewater and Harvestpoint Church friends. She will be buried next to her parents in McIntosh, MN.

A visitation for Fern will be held on Saturday, August 16, 2025, from 12:30 pm until the time of her Memorial Service at 1:30 pm at Harvestpoint Church, 209 S. 4th Street, Delavan, WI.