NORTHFIELD — Emilie Rae Pearson passed away peacefully in Holland, Michigan, with family at her side on November 1, 2021. She was 81.
Born to Emil and Elsa Fallstrom on April 13, 1940, Rae was the third of four children and grew up with her siblings in the small iron-mining town of Buhl, Minnesota, where the family divided its time between their home in town and their cabin on nearby Lake Fourteen. Rae was baptized and confirmed at First Lutheran Church and graduated from Martin Hughes High School in Buhl as the class valedictorian in 1958. She attended Virginia Junior College for two years before transferring to the University of Minnesota, where she studied home economics and earned her bachelor's degree in 1962. She taught home economics, first in Little Falls and later in the Twin Cities area, until 1971, when she married Wes Pearson at Boe Memorial Chapel at St. Olaf College.
Rae and Wes worked together to create a good home for their family. After marrying, Rae gave up her teaching career and devoted herself to homemaking, which included all the usual household chores like doing the laundry and the dishes, as well as some less common ones: when they built the garage and the addition to the house in 1977, Rae helped by pounding nails, sawing boards, and smoothing cement for the driveway and garage floor. After they decided to heat their house with wood, Rae pitched in by sawing logs with a chainsaw and hauling and stacking wood. Cooking and baking were among her favorite homemaking activities; she loved baking breads, which were a favorite of family and friends, and making cookies, which were a favorite of her boys and their neighborhood friends. When working around the house, Rae listened to music whenever possible, and she especially loved to listen to her collection of St. Olaf Christmas Festival recordings - regardless of the season.
In addition to her activities as a stay-at-home mom, Rae volunteered her time and talents to a variety of organizations and projects around Northfield. She taught Sunday school at St. John's Lutheran Church and served on the kitchen committee as well as many other church committees. She was an active member of Svenska Klubb, where she enjoyed the good company of friends and the Swedish traditions of Santa Lucia and dancing around the Maypole. Near and dear to her heart was the volunteer work that she did at St. John's for over a decade with Lutheran World Relief; she led the group of quilters at church that made quilts for people all over the world, and she organized the annual LWR School Kit drive at St. John's, sewing hundreds of bags for people to fill with school supplies for children in America and across the globe.
Among all her activities, the activity that gave her the greatest joy was being a mom. She loved going to her boys' concerts and ball games and spending time with them. She will be remembered as someone who taught them, with a twinkle in her eye and a song in her heart, how to be a good and faithful person, how to find joy in the everyday things of life, and how to love well.
Rae was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Wes, her sister Marge, and her brother Les. She is survived by her sons Mark (and wife Karen) and Paul (and wife Alyssa Cheadle), as well as by the grandchildren whom she adored, Anna, Joshua, and Elsa.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00AM, Thursday, August 11, 2022, at St. John's Lutheran Church, 500 W. 3rd Street, Northfield. Visitation will begin at 10AM and a reception will follow.
Memorials are preferred to the Wes and Rae Pearson Endowed Fund at St. Olaf College or to St. John's Lutheran Church.
Data included is taken from the Minnesota Department of Health Daily reports. Because all data is preliminary, the change in number of cumulative positive cases and deaths from one day to the next may not equal the newly reported cases or deaths.
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