LaVona I. (Severin) Thorsen

LaVona Severin Thorsen, 97 years of age, a native of Nebraska and a 70- year resident of Newton, Iowa died on December 2, 2017.

Memorial services for Mrs. Thorsen will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, May 5, 2018 at the Wallace Family Funeral Home & Crematory in Newton. The body has been cremated.

Memorials to the Good Cheer Class of the First Lutheran Church or to the Jasper County Genealogy Society may be left at the funeral home. Memorials may also be mailed to the funeral home, please add, Attn: Thorsen Family on the envelope.

LaVona, the daughter of Fredrick and Fredricka (Knollenberg) Severin was born on September 5, 1920 in Hallam, Nebraska. Her mother passed away when she was one year old and she was raised by her father, grandparents, and later by stepmother, Hazel Giles Severin. She graduated from Hallam High School and the Lincoln Beauty Academy in Lincoln, Nebraska. She worked in the engineering department at Convair Air Craft during WW II.

On August 29, 1943, she married Donald O. Thorsen of Chicago and San Diego. They returned to the Midwest, settling in Newton in 1947. In the ensuing years, she served as a Cub Scout den mother, Campfire leader, Sunday school teacher, and PTA officer. In 1965, she returned to work as an inventory control clerk at the Vernon Company, retiring 17 years later. In her later years, she traveled extensively, visiting more than 24 different countries in Europe and Asia, as well as Australia, New Zealand and most of the United States.

She was a member of the First Lutheran Church, Dorcas, The Good Cheer Class, and the Jasper County Genealogy Society, where she volunteered for 10 years. She also did volunteer work as an advocate at the former County Home.

Those honoring her memory include a daughter and son-in-law, Gayle and Lansing Shepard of Minneapolis, Minnesota; a son and daughter-in-law, Bruce and Jan Thorsen of Clive, Iowa; four grandchildren, Jill Thorsen Spencer (Bobby) of Memphis, Tennessee; Heidi Havnen (Marc) of Clive; Mark Thorsen (Jessica) of Atlanta, Georgia; and Lindsey Thorsen of Clive; five great-granddaughters, two sisters, Norma Jean Haas of Lincoln, Nebraska and Mary Jo Steffy of Walla Walla, Washington; and her nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, stepmother, husband, Don in 1986 and brother, Glen Severin.

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