EMMA SONDERUP RASMUSSEN

Funeral Services were held 10:30 A.M., Thursday, October 12, 1995 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kronborg, Nebraska.  Interment was held at the North Logan Cemetery in St. Paul, Nebraska.

Emma Eline Rasmussen, the daughter of Wilhelm and Else (Knudsen) Sonderup, was born in a dugout in Greeley County, Nebraska, on February 27, 1900, and died at Grand Island, Nebraska, on October 9, 1995, at the age of 95 years, 7 months, and 12 days. Later the family moved to as sod house in Howard County, Nebraska. She received her education at District # 56 grade school, and attended Dana College in Blair, Nebraska in 1919, and 1920,

majoring in music. She played the church organ and gave music lessons. She went with her parents to Denmark for 3 months, when she was 13 years old. She was employed in Fremont, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado. In 1924, when her sister-in-law Gertie passed away, she moved in with her brother Henry and his four daughters, Gladys, Agnetha, Lois and Rhoda and cared for them for 8 years.

On March 10, 1932, she was united in marriage to Marius Rasmussen. They lived most of their married life in Howard County in the St. Paul and Dannebrog communities, and from 1952 to 1953, the lived in Grand Island. He preceded her in death on May 1, 1957. Following her husband’s death, she lived in Cairo for 19 years, where she baby sat for many children in the community. She made her home with her daughter Elsie and her husband Virgil near Aurora for 13 years. She has resided in a Grand Island nursing home for the past 6 years.

Emma was a seamstress, loved to cook and bake, especially all the Danish goodies, and loved to garden and can. She crocheted more than 100 afghans, which she gave to family and friends. She was an avid soap opera fan and read the newspaper each day from back to front. She was baptized in the Lutheran faith as an infant and was confirmed on May 17, 1913, in the Danish language in St. Peter’s Lutheran Church at North Logan. She was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church at Kronborg, Nebraska.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, a daughter Annetta Emma, who was a twin to Rosetta, 3 brothers, Henry, Chris and Michael Sonderup; 2 sisters, Marie Petersen and Esther Enevoldsen, and 2 brothers who died in infancy.

Those who remain to cherish her memory are her 5 daughters, Elsie Marie Stonestreet and her husband Virgil of Aurora, Eline Darleen Gans and her husband Robert of Dannebrog, Rosetta Emma Scranton of Grand Island, Marilyn Alda Rae Selden and her husband Paul of Broomfield, Colorado, and Loretta Pearl VonKampen and her husband Ted of Scottsbluff; 17 grandchildren, and 19 great grandchildren.