Eleanor Beckstrand

Eleanor V. Beckstrand, age 87, died peacefully at the Emmanuel Home in Litchfield on Saturday, March 20, 2010. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, March 23rd, at the St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church in Litchfield with Pastor Paul Lindhorst officiating. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the church. Interment will be in the Lake Ripley Cemetery. Eleanor Viola (Kruger) Beckstrand was born May 21, 1922 to Carl and Elsie (Duehlmeier) Kruger, Greenleaf township, Meeker County, Litchfield Minn. Eleanor was baptized July 2, 1922 by Rev. Guse and confirmed July 4, 1937 by Rev. Karl Plocher, at St. Paul EV. Lutheran Church in Litchfield. Eleanor attended grade school in Dist. 94 by Lake Minnie Belle and graduated with the class of 1940 from Litchfield High School. Eleanor worked for the Anderson Chemical and Creamery for Alfred Anderson; she even signed all the cream checks. She then worked for Ruth M. Peterson and Harriette Anderson, Meeker County Superintendent of Schools. In 1947, she married Harold Beckstrand they started an implement and auto business in Sleepy Eye, MN. She was the bookkeeper and parts lady in the business. They then moved to South Dakota to operate a large ranch. In 1966 they started traveling to sunny Arizona. The final move to Arizona was in 1968. She worked for contractors, real estate, mobile homes, insurance brokers, and the IRS for a while. She was a clerk for election for 22 years. In 2006, she returned to Litchfield. Eleanor kept busy by volunteering in churches, food banks, and in schools. Eleanor had a Baldwin electric organ with the fun maker, several musicians called and helped polish the keys, coffee and cookies were served. She is survived by nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends. Those who precede her in death are her husband, son Robert in June of 1989, parents, 3 brothers, Clarence, Earl and Kenneth also sister Jean in Tennessee.