St. Pete Beach, FL – Darleen Mortenson died peacefully in her home on August 24, 2024. Born Darleen Helga (Quindlog) Edwards on August 19, 1924, in Thief River Falls, she attended Lincoln High School until graduation in 1942. She then attended MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis, where she studied piano while also working in a munitions factory during World War II. In 1945 she returned to Thief River Falls and worked at Wangenstein Jewelers and lived with her grandparents, Paul and Hannah (Koppang) Quindlog, and her aunt, Agnes Quindlog.
In 1946 she married Stanley Neil Mortenson, an attorney also from Thief River Falls.
They moved to St Pete Beach, FL in 1981, where she and her husband assumed ownership of the former “K’s Originals” store in Pass a Grille.
Baking Scandinavian pastries, home decorating and entertaining were her favorite pastimes. A great admirer of Van Gogh, she also enjoyed oil painting and Rosemaling, and was an active member of the Thief River Falls art club, the Zehlians.
She is preceded in death by her mother, Helga (Quindlog) Edwards; daughter, Deborah; grandparents, Hannah and Paul Quindlog; father, Lamar James Edwards; and half brother Dennis Edwards. Her husband of 56 years, Stanley Neil Mortenson, died in 2004.
She is survived by children, Paul Edward Mortenson of Grand Forks, ND and Candace Lee Mortenson of St. Pete Beach, FL.
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