Clara Amelia (Sandau) Carlson

Clara Carlson, 96, of Debs, MN passed away peacefully at Sanford Bemidji Medical Center on April 9, 2018.

Memorial Services will be 11:00 a.m., Saturday, April 28, 2018 at Trinity Lutheran Church, Debs, MN with Pastor Mike Naylor officiating. Family will greet friends beginning at 9:30 a.m. the day of the service at the church. Inurnment will be in Trinity Lutheran Cemetery, Debs. Arrangements were entrusted to the Olson-Schwartz Funeral Home, Bemidji.

Clara was born in Dallas, SD in June 1921. She moved to Solway, MN when she was 13 years old with her parents and siblings. They had a family farm which she worked on while attending Bemidji High School. She graduated in 1939. She worked at Coxes Bakery of Bemidji and the Solway Café where she met the love of her life, John. Clara Married John Morris Carlson on February 5, 1949. They moved to Debs, MN shortly after and built their farm. There they raised dairy cattle and farmed until his retirement in 1988. In 1953 they had their daughter, Connie. They were married 50 wonderful years until John passed away in October 1999. Clara also worked as an aid at Lake Julia Tuberculosis Sanatorium and did housekeeping at the Markham Hotel in Bemidji. She was in Ladies Aide, Jolly Pioneers, Legion Auxiliary and an active member at Trinity Lutheran Church of Debs, MN. She enjoyed gardening, mowing the lawn, reading and writing poems and even wrote a book about her family. Her greatest joy was feeding hummingbirds and watching them in her screen porch in the summer. She was a loving and devoted wife, mother, grandmother and friend.

She is survived by her daughter, Connie (Wayne) Zeto of Bemidji; granddaughter, Lisa (Jeremy) Tieden of Bemidji; grandson, Dan (Heidi) Zeto of Osceola, WI and 3 great-grandchildren, Leighton, Flynn and Seamus.

She was preceded in death by her husband, John Carlson; parents, Samuel and Matilda Sandau; brother, Henry (Minnie) Sandau and sisters, Selma (Hank) Peterson and Mabel Marie Sandau.

Online guestbook at www.OlsonSchwartzFuneralHome.com

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