July 8, 2014

Effie Enderud

Effie Nora Enderud, 95, of Watford City, N.D., passed away Friday, July 4, 2014, at the Good Shepherd Home in Watford City, N.D.
Funeral Services will be held July, 9, 2014, at the Banks Lutheran Church. Reverends Mark Honstein and Bruce Gunderson will officiate.  Burial will be in the Banks Lutheran Cemetery.
Effie Nora Gunderson was born Nov. 15, 1918, to Ole Benhart (Bennie) and Myrtle Hagenston Gunderson at the family homestead in Banks, N.D.
When Effie was six years old, her mother died in childbirth, leaving a family of seven children, ranging in ages of one to nine years old, for Bennie to raise. Their paternal grandmother came to help, eventually taking the two youngest, Muriel Claire and Donald, back to her home in Canada. When Claire became ill, the rest of the family moved to Canada, where both Claire and Donald died. In 1929, Bennie brought the “Bennie kids” back to their North Dakota farm. Effie attended the Gamache School and went on to graduate as an honor student in 1936, from Watford City High School. The day after graduation she was home herding sheep.
Effie’s first jobs off the farm included working at Hank’s Place (later called the Chuckwagon); the Figure Four Ranch, and the NYA office, a government project that created jobs for the youth. During this time, Effie met a young man who was working at the Grantier Ranch and shared her love for music and dancing.  On March 29, 1940, she and the young man, Palmer Enderud, were married at the Banks Lutheran parsonage. Eventually they found their dream farm where they spent the next 50 plus years, raising three children, cattle, and grain/hay crops – and kept on dancing.
Effie had numerous interests but her role as farm wife and mother was at the top. She was a lifelong member of the rural Banks Lutheran Church, teaching Sunday School for 17 years and held various offices in the “Ladies Aid”. She was a Banks Willing Workers 4-H leader for many years. In her sixties, she realized two of her dreams - learning how to play the piano and oil painting. She excelled in the kitchen, not only at home but over the years, patients in the McKenzie County Hospital, kids at Watford City High School and residents of the Good Shepherd Home got to enjoy her cooking. She loved crossword puzzles, growing and arranging flowers, and she had a talent for making old things look new again.  
Effie moved to the Horizon assisted living facility in August of 2001 and with the onset of dementia, the Good Shepherd Home became her home in June, 2007. She passed away there on Tuesday afternoon, July 4, 2014.
Effie was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Palmer, in 2001; son, Richard (Rick) in 2012; an infant daughter; four brothers – Stanford, Allan, Donald and Peter Gunderson; three sisters – Muriel Claire Gunderson, Dorothy Gunderson and Helen Hamre.   
She is survived by two daughters – Muriel (Bob) Mjelstad, Billings, Mont.; Patti (Kenny) Leiseth, Arnegard, N.D.; and daughter-in-law, Cheryl Enderud, Dickinson, N.D.; grandchildren – Mike Mjelstad, Jodi (Mjelstad) Matchett, Staci (Mjelstad)Howard, Jeff Mjelstad, Troy Leiseth, Janelle (Leiseth) Burgener, Ryan Enderud, Marci (Enderud) Murphy, Nicole (Enderud) Crampton, and Derek Enderud; great-grandchildren – Marty, Katie, Alecia, Preston, Chris, Nick, Maddie, Megan, Ashley, Hailey, Morgan, Tanner, Reed, Dalton, Kenna, Jayden, Erica, Bradyn, Declan, Raghyn, Cullen, Wyn, Rydon; great-great grandchildren – Avera, Avalei, Avaya, Hunter and Maicey; numerous nieces and nephews, especially Melvin Karlstad; and sisters-in-law, Agnes Ridl and Pearl Gauer.
 

WATFORD CITY WEATHER