St. Louis Park – Phyllis M. Kragseth, 95, of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, died Sunday, July 13, 2025.
Preceded in death by husband Norman Kragseth; parents Halbert and Lyda Evenstad, brother Virgil Evenstad, sister Joan Kelver, sister-in-law Marlyn Evenstad, brothers-in-law John Viren, Roger Kragseth, Dar Kelver and George Gifford. Survived by brother Larry Evenstad; sister Sharon Gifford; sisters-in-law Janis Viren and Eleanor Kragseth; children David, Susan, and Steven; many nieces and nephews and grandchildren.
Born in Pennington County, Phyllis grew up on “the Horseshoe” in Thief River Falls within an exceptionally close and supportive community of relatives and other families who established robust and resilient bonds of mutual support forged during the struggles and uncertainties of the Great Depression and World War II. Phyllis embodied all the characteristics of her “Silent Generation” with a strong work ethic, perseverance, commitment to principles, and creating a stable and secure home for family. Affectionately known as “Pido” by those on “the Horseshoe”, Phyllis often spoke about how much she enjoyed singing with friends and swimming in the Red Lake River, just down the street from the family’s two bedroom house.
At Lincoln High School, Phyllis developed her wide range of interests in academics, women’s sports, journalism, and theatre. Elected by school faculty to the National Honor Society, Phyllis was an officer of the Girls Athletic Association, Section Editor for the school newspaper, Treasurer for the yearbook, and the lead in the Senior Class Play “Jane Eyre”.
At Moorhead State Teachers College, Phyllis continued to pursue her eclectic interests in education, journalism, dramatics, and swimming. She was elected editor of the school’s yearbook and was an active member of college’s national journalism fraternity, national honorary English fraternity, and dramatics society. She appeared in two college stage productions as well as choreographed and swam in her own production of “Mermaids” for the school’s swim club.
After transferring to the University of Minnesota, Phyllis received her bachelor’s degree in education. Her adventurous spirit took her to Montana for a first high school teaching job in English, Speech, and Art, including evening oil painting classes at the local Junior College. She returned to Thief River Falls as an English teacher at her alma mater Lincoln High School after which Phyllis went on her long delayed “Grand Tour” of Europe boarding an Italian transatlantic liner in Quebec, Canada and arriving in Southampton, England for her first leg of a journey to Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Yugoslavia. Following her adventures in Europe, Phyllis returned to work as an English teacher at Marshall High School near the University of Minnesota. The local newspaper introducing new teachers in the Minneapolis public school system reported “She enjoys swimming, tennis and golf, and all winter sports, particularly skiing.
She likes art and all of kinds of music and is a record collector.”
Her students arranged a blind date with the school’s head football coach, Norm Kragseth, and they married two years later, just before he accepted the head football coaching position at the burgeoning suburban Hopkins High School. Eventually settling in St. Louis Park and raising three children, Phyllis was a devoted full-time mother and a Sunday School teacher at the nearby Union Congregational Church, where she would often create her own costumes and props to reenact biblical stories and parables for young children.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s, Phyllis returned to education by working at the University of Minnesota on the BORN FREE project. The initiative aimed to reduce the negative impact of genderized career socialization by developing training on recognizing gender-role stereotyping and its negative impact on girls and boys, women and men. This experience had a profound impact on Phyllis with its holistic approach emphasizing the integration of the mind, body, and spirit, acknowledging multiple aspects of life as interrelated, as well as a unique focus on both connectedness and community, all of which echoed back to her youth on “the Horseshoe”.
Phyllis was a prolific letter writer with a special capacity for patient listening, insightful questions, a calm demeanor, and non-judgmental feedback, reflecting her many years involved in career counseling, as well as a quiet but deep confidence in herself, an unassuming acuity and thirst for learning, and strength in her own principles and beliefs. While Phyllis could be wickedly sharp in her observations, she had an amazing optimistic spirit, quick wit, and easy laugh, especially when
“antiquing” with her adult sibling sisters during family reunions or visiting with relatives and close friends from church or school.
Later in life, Phyllis enjoyed daily phone calls from her two grown sons and her grandchildren, while under the constant singular care provided by her faithful daughter, just as Phyllis had done so selflessly for her mother decades earlier. Phyllis peacefully began her next journey in the familiar bedroom of her home of sixty-five years surrounded by the warmth and love of all her children and many of her grandchildren at her bedside; all of whom remember when they told her how much they loved her, Phyllis would always respond “Love you more!”
A dedicated life-long student and educator, Phyllis bequeathed her body to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Program in support of medical life science education.
Internment of ashes will be with her husband at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Bloomington and Park Hill Cemetery in Duluth as well as with her parents at Greenwood Cemetery in Thief River Falls, overlooking her beloved “Horseshoe”.
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