Ruth Pelowski Erickson

Funeral services for Ruth Pelowski Erickson of Roseau will be held on Friday, September 16th at 10:00 AM at Moe Lutheran Church, Roseau, MN . Visitation will be from 5:00-7:00 PM on Thursday, September 15th with a devotional service at 7:00 PM at Helgeson Funeral Home in Roseau. Interment will be held at the Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery, Roseau, MN.

Ruth (Pelowski) Erickson, the daughter of Brede and Mathilda (Pederson) Christianson, was born in Haug, MN on August 10, 1919. She attended grade school in Haug Leo and graduated from Badger High School in 1935.  After graduation, she spent 2 ½ years in Los Angeles working as a governess while living with her sister Mabel

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Ruth’s first husband, Lawrence Pelowski, passed away in 1963 as a result of a car accident, leaving their 11 children to raise on her own.  In 1974 she married Earl Erickson and they spent many happy years together.  They especially enjoyed traveling and dancing to Ferdie’s Band.

Ruth stayed busy all of her life.  She worked with her husband Lawerence in his butcher shop in Roseau, at the Laundromat in Roseau for Orv Tangen, and at the Roseau Red Owl store until her retirement.  The couple also spent 3 ½ years in Baudette working at the Red Owl store there.  First and foremost, though, Ruth was a homemaker and a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother to her family.  She was an avid sports’ fan and loved watching all the sports that her family members were involved in, and she was a huge Twins fan.

Ruth was a hard worker with an unbelievable strength to survive any of life’s difficulties.  She rarely had time to sit down, but the coffee pot was always on and those that entered her kitchen couldn’t resist the tasty morsels they would find there.  Her homemade buns, lefsa, flatbread, donuts, and Sally Ann cookies were famous throughout the family and the community. She also loved to garden and to pick berries.  Knitting, crocheting, quilting, bowling, golfing, card playing, reading ,piano playing and working crossword puzzles were other activities she enjoyed.  Every grandchild received an afghan or a quilt for his/her graduation.

Ruth spent the last five years of her life at Oak Crest Senior Housing.

She passed away on September 13, 2016, at Life Care Medical Center at the age of 97.

Ruth is survived by her children:  Loreen Nash of Albuquerque, NM; Jan (DeWayne) Jensen of Roseau, MN; Rick (Gwen) Pelowski of Maple Grove, MN; Brian (Sharon) Pelowski of Roseau; Mike (MaryAnna) Pelowski of Roseau; Deanna (Blane) Comstock of Warroad, MN; Mary (Earl) Anderson of Roseau; Kathy Pelowski of Aspen, CO; Jeff (Joni) Pelowski of Roseau; and Jim (Deb) Pelowski  of Cortland, NY.  She is also survived by 20 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husbands, Lawrence and Earl,  her son Allan, and five sisters and four brothers.

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