Bernice Elwell

Bernice Elwell

91, of St. Paul

formerly Hill City, MN

died peacefully on Feb. 27 in the arms of family. Born Anna Bernice Page at her family?s farm near Carrington, ND, July 9, 1916. Preceded in death by her husband of 49 years, Reid, and her only sibling, William Page. She was the rock that held our family together in the time of our and her greatest tragedy, the death of son Michael in Vietnam in 1968. She leaves behind five children, Georgia, Patty (Brian), Jean (Terry), John (Maureen), and Jim; and six grandchildren, Peter and Katherine Earley, Michael and Sean Keir, and Joseph and Helena Elwell; and beloved sister-in-law, Lillian Page. Trained as a teacher of Latin and English at Jamestown College in ND, she taught in many communities, including Grafton and Mandan, ND. In Mandan, she met her husband, Reid, and began a family. The family lived in Parshall and Wimbledon, ND, and Grey Eagle, Fairfax, Gaylord, and Hill City, MN. She began a second teaching career in 1966 in Gaylord, and finished her career as a library/media generalist in Hill city, retiring at 71 in 1977. Bernice cared for her family above all else. With her children, she shared her love of gardening and a love of words, the playful Scotch-Irish wit of her kinfolk, a genuine sense of Christian faith, and her belief in the importance of public and private service in a good life. She was generous, empathetic and modest to a fault, eschewing thanks and praise in favor of a quiet sense of being happy with what she had. She was not much of a traveler, and so we remember her fondly for the trips she made to visit family in New York and Oregon, and three road trips out west she made with us.

May she rest with angels in peace.

Mass of Christian Burial Saturday, March 1, at 11 AM at ST. JOHN?S CATHOLIC CHURCH, Hill City, MN. Visitation and Memorial Service Saturday, 5-8 PM at BRADSHAW, 488 Humboldt Avenue, St. Paul, MN. Interment Monday, March 3, 9 AM at Fort Snelling National Cemetery (Assembly Area #1), Minneapolis