Thief River Falls – Esther Sevre of Thief River Falls passed away peacefully on Thursday, June 21, 2018, at the Thief River Care Center at the age of 95 years old.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday, July 3, 2018 at Zion Lutheran Church in Thief River Falls at 2:00 p.m., with visitation one hour prior to the service. Interment will be held at Eidsvold Cemetery in Halma.
Esther Lillie Zarling was born November 27, 1922, on the family farm in Deerwood Township, Kittson County, to Robert and Ida (Jopp) Zarling. She was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith at Eidsvold Church in Halma. She attended Beaton School in Deerwood Township.
On April 19th, 1941, Esther was united in marriage to Olaf Spilde at the Eidsvold Parsonage in Halma. They were married for 24 years. Into this union three daughters were born; Irene, Gay, and Fay. Olaf passed away in 1965.
In 1966 Esther and Fay moved to Thief River Falls where she started working at Valley Home. Esther married Clarence Sevre on March 31, 1972, at Zion Lutheran Church in Thief River Falls. They were married 28 years and had one daughter, Dana. Clarence passed away in 2000.
Esther especially enjoyed spending time with family. Her family always looked forward to her homemade vegetable beef soup, roast beef dinners, bread from scratch, homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and all sorts of Norwegian treats for Christmas.
Esther was a member of the Eidsvold Lutheran Church where she served as Sunday School Superintendent, taught Sunday School, and belonged to Ladies Aid. She was active in a homemaker’s group and worked with 4-H.
Esther’s favorite hobbies included sewing, embroidery, painting ceramics, and crocheting afghans for each of her family members. Bingo, Yahtzee, Dominos and doing word searches were some of her favorite pastimes. Esther was always a hard worker at her various jobs, but her favorite job was caring for her family.
Esther is survived by her daughters, Irene (Duane) Ronnander, Gay (Gary) Sommerfeld, Fay Spilde, and Dana (Doug) Amiot; seven grandchildren, Todd (Michele) Ronnander, Sara (Ken) Breeggemann, Teresa (Dan) Audette, Stephanie, Kourtney, Karee and Syrie Amiot; nine great-grandchildren, Mikhail (Lauren), Mercedes, and Hattie Ronnander, Katherine, Abigail, and Caleb Breeggemann, Sommer and Noah Audette, and Asher Walter; sister-in-law, Darlene Zarling; several nieces and nephews, and Godchildren, Melody Dunay, Rebecca Wollin, and Michael Ekdahl.
Esther was preceded in death by her parents; spouses, Olaf and Clarence; granddaughter-in-law, Cindy Ronnander; great grandson, Liam Breeggemann, brothers, Reinhart, Alfred, Edwin, Ernest Zarling; sister, Alvina Wollin and several brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law.
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