Carol Otterholt

Carol Lucille Otterholt, age 97, died September 2, 2024, at Luther Haven Care Center in Montevideo, MN where she had been a resident the past four and a half years.

Memorial services will be held Friday, October 4, 2024. at 11 a.m. at Big Bend Lutheran Church with Rev. Kristine Isder officiating.   Burial will be in the church cemetery.

Visitation will be held for one hour before the service at the church and the sharing of memories will continue after the service during the luncheon.

Carol was born November 1, 1926, at home in Hegbert Township, Swift County, MN the eldest child of Berthil Dorff and Anna Stenstuen Dorff. Carol grew up speaking Norwegian as her first language, learning English only when her mother declared, “We have to start talking English so Carol will be ready for school.” While still young, the family moved off the farm to Appleton, MN, where she graduated from high school. She worked at both Doege’s Candy Kitchen and the grocery store in Appleton.

Carol met her husband-to-be, Leland Otterholt, at a Big Ole Show and dance in Appleton, marrying on November 12, 1944 at the Zion Lutheran parsonage in Appleton. Fulfilling her dream of a country farm life, they moved to the family farm in Mandt Township, Chippewa County, where they lived for sixty-five years before moving to Montevideo in Fall of 2009. Born to this union were Susan Lucille in 1946 and Daniel Erick in 1948. Leland died February 16, 2011.

When her family was grown Carol worked outside the home, at Fab ‘N Trim Fabric Store and Control Data in Montevideo. While skilled with needle and thread—crocheting, cross stitch and Norwegian Hardanger embroidery— she was especially adept at sewing clothing for all her family, including her daughter’s wedding dress on a treadle sewing machine. Neighbor girls came to her for help making buttonholes on their 4-H projects. She had large gardens and canned vegetables, fruit, and chicken before the days of home freezers—always it seemed on the hottest days of summer in a sweltering kitchen, often as skies turned threatening and thunderstorms rolled in from the west. Leland raised chickens and sold eggs for many years, eggs she washed by hand. A peony she bought with her first “egg money” still blooms today.

She was an active member of Big Bend Lutheran Church in Ladies Aid, Circle, as Sunday School teacher and superintendent. She supervised a number of Sunday School Christmas programs, always big, exciting events for children and families in years gone by. Carol’s true love was books, reading and words. While in elementary school a teacher introduced her to crossword puzzles, which became a lifelong pastime. Books were not easily accessible until the Bookmobile began making stops throughout the county, and later on she and Leland never went to town without making a stop at the public library. She kept detailed lists of the books she read each year and always said, I will be content in my old age, if I can still read. Thankfully when macular degeneration took her eyesight she was still able to read through the services of the Minnesota Department of Education Braille and Talking Book Library, which for years supplied her with recordings of all her favorite books and authors.

For over fifty years Carol chronicled life on the farm, penning daily entries mostly on the free calendar journals received from Farmers Union/Cenex. She detailed weather, crops, sickness, meals, trips to town, visiting among neighbors and family and her children’s activities. Again she kept lists of all the produce she canned every year and all the garments she sewed. These journals still exist, leaving a legacy of insight into rural Minnesota farm life in the last half of the twentieth century.

Once retired, Leland and Carol enjoyed taking trips to the Twin Cities to see Sue and family and the western U. S. to Dan’s. Trips always included stops at museums, historical sites, state parks, and threshing shows. They enjoyed visiting with farm neighbor couples and friends.

Carol is survived by her children: Susan (Robert) Kempe of Montevideo and Daniel (Joan) Otterholt of Casper, WY; three grandchildren: Matthew (Lena) Kempe of Scarsdale NY, Martin (Jill Kane) Kempe of Mendota Heights MN, Anna Otterholt of Casper; four great-grandchildren: Margaret Kempe of Ann Arbor MI, Alexander Kempe of Scarsdale and Claire and Grace Schulz of Casper; brother Gordon Dorff of Sioux Falls SD, sister Ruth Greene of Iowa City IA.

Preceding her in death were her parents, her husband and a granddaughter, Amy Lie Otterholt.

The family would like to thank Carol’s caregivers at Luther Haven, you truly are God’s hands on Earth. A special thank you to farm neighbors for their care and concern over the years.

Memorials will be gratefully donated to the Chippewa County Montevideo Library to purchase large print books.