Julie Wellen

A "Celebration of Life" for Julie Hetteen Wellen will be held on Wednesday, September 6 at 1PM at the Pioneer Farm in Roseau, Mn. Julie passed away peacefully with her daughter by her side on August 28, 2023 after a fierce battle with cancer. She was born September 4" 1955 in Roseau to Donnelly and Naomi (Jenson) Hetteen.

As that family expanded to four children, they moved from Roseau to Cottonwood AZ, where the little siblings created amazing memories that have lasted a lifetime. In 1967 the family returned to Roseau, So important were those memories that the three oldest sisters made a trip back to AZ in 2004 to travel their old homestead streets and visit with family still there. In 1972 Julie married Dale Knutson and to that union was born her most prized processions, her children Christopher Davis and Sara Beth. They had special connections that none other would understand.

She married Jerry Wellen in 1992 and they made their home in Badger raising her children and Jerry's three sons, Larry, Terry and Travis to adulthood. They owned and operated the Priority One restaurant in Badger where the entire family played a role in operations at times. When the children grew, Jerry, Julie and beloved pet Muffy moved to southern Minnesota and eventually settled in Little Falls. Julie loved Little Falls! While there she gained some amazing forever friends. She was born with a "green thumb" and created such beautiful landscaping. She worked at a greenhouse in Little Falls for years and in that time was approached by businesses to create displays and/or curb appeal designs. She mastered that task flawlessly. Julie was also an amazing interior decorator. She had the unique ability to match her decorating ideas with the owner's personality which garnered her several very intriguing decorating projects. She also worked in sales at a few businesses. Again, Julie mastered that flawlessly. She could have sold a boat in the desert with her sweet talking mannerisms and attractive charisma. Julie returned

to northern Minnesota in 2021 to be closer to her children and made her home in Karlstad. There she dusted off her restaurant expertise and joined daughter Sara in co-managing the Nordhem restaurant, She enjoyed that until her illness in 2022.

Julie was a free spirit! She was very spiritual and loved to meditate. Julie's "cheeky" smile was one that we all loved and looked forward to. She made anybody feel good when in her presence and she was so very looked up to. She gave life advice that we all grew to crave at times because she was so good at it. Her loss will be deeply felt for some time to come.

Julie is survived by her children Christopher (Dawn) Knutson of Roseau and Sara (Stuart) Wojciechowski of Greenbush. Her grandchildren Cheyenne, Bo, Kayla, John, Jesse, James and 11 great-grandchildren, Her siblings, Cindy Butler of Karlstad, Kelly (Steve) Solom of Roseau, Brian Hetteen of North Carolina, Jason, (Jenny) Tangen of Roseau and Heidi Carlson of Roseau. Her aunts, uncles, cousins and many nieces and nephews all of whom adored her.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her nephew Luke Solom.

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