Obituary: Ardeth Jensen

Ardeth Arlene (Haas) Jensen passed away March 27, 2021, at St. Gabriel's Community in Bismarck, N.D., at age 97.

Ardeth was born May 5, 1923 in rural Hamar, N.D., to Ray and Alma (Jones) Haas. She was number four of the seven children born to Ray and Alma. She grew up on the family farm, all the girls worked on the farm, and in the fields. Her fondest memories were of shocking grain, stacking hay, and finding bird nests with her sisters closest to her age, Beryl and Mary Elva. Beryl loved to chase her with a snake that she would occasionally find.

She was educated in and graduated from Hamar Public High School in 1941. Hamar Public School was closed in 1943. She attended Mayville State College, where she graduated and became a country-school elementary teacher. She taught at Colvin Township School in Eddy County, where many of her students became her neighbors, after she was married to Obert T. Jensen on Dec. 23, 1944.

She was active in Garden Club and Band Mothers from McHenry Public School, singing with Eleanor Eideon at weddings, funerals, and in the choir at Gethsemane Lutheran Church. Ardeth worked on the family farm raising chickens, milking cows for many years, planting trees, picking rocks from the fields, and always raising a big garden and canning.

Ardeth and Obert lived on the family farm in Colvin Township for the next 50 years. They retired and moved to Jamestown, N.D. in the fall of 1994. Obert passed in January 2006. In 2010, she moved with her daughter to Bismarck, N.D., where she resided until she passed.

She is survived by her children, David (Michelle), Lake Havasu, Ariz.; Douglas (Marjorie), Medora, N.D.; Arlene, Jamestown, N.D.; and Rae Louise (Kevin) Zurhoff, Bismarck, N.D.; grandchildren, Heidi from Roanoke, Virginia; David (Charie) both of Mandan, N.D.; Tyler, Steele, N.D.; and great-granddaughters, Elise and Charlotte Louise; and sister, Dedre Weisenberger, Warwick, N.D. Her sibling's children and Alice's son, Donnie Aaker, were important to her and she communicated with them often, and they were all wonderful to send her pictures, presents, cards and letters. She also leaves behind all her special friends and neighbors, nieces and nephews who were her pen pals. She loved to write and receive letters and often sent pictures of the family to each one.

Ardeth was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her grandson, Preston Daren Jensen; four sisters, Jessamine Hoveskeland, Bessie Rude, Beryl Morken, and Mary Elva Twete; brother, Gerald Haas; and numerous nieces and nephews.

There will be a Celebration of Life on May 8 at 2 p.m. at the Jensen Family Farm. The family prefers memorials to be given to the Gethsemane Cemetery.