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Elisabet Jensen, 100

Memorial service for Elisabet Jensen, age 100, of Rathdrum, Idaho, will be 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, at Yates Funeral Home, 744 N. Fourth St., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with reception to follow. Arrangements are provided by Yates Funeral Home.

Astha Eve Marie Elisabet (Sjöö) Jensen, of Rathdrum, Idaho, peacefully passed away at Wellspring Meadows Memory Care in Hayden, Idaho on Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018. She was 100 years and nine months old. Elisabet was born in Sweden on Dec. 12, 1917, to parents, Oskar Person and Edith Althea (Mansson) Sjöö. Astha, endearingly called Elisabet or “Betty,” grew up with her sister, Ency (Stardig). Elisabet and her family immigrated to the United States in 1921, when she was merely three and a half years old. Her family resided in Minnesota, where Elisabet graduated from North High School. There, she was known for being “pleasing and brilliant.” In the summers she would work the farms in Stephen, Minn., and was a personal assistant at Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in Minneapolis.

Elisabet married Jens Peter Jensen on Nov. 22, 1941. They honeymooned in San Diego, Calif., where they experienced the wartime blackout during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

For a career, Elisabet and her husband, Jens, were owners of fabric stores and mercantiles in Minnesota (McIntosh, Bemidji, Brainerd and St. Cloud). They owned their own farm — first in Stephens, then in McIntosh and they finally settled in Bemidji. After Jens P. Jensen’s death, Elisabet moved to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 1996 to be closer to family.

Elisabet was an accomplished golfer, Cub Scout leader, church choir director, Sunday school director and she led church Bible studies. She spoke five languages: Swedish, Norwegian, French, Latin and English. She was a voracious reader, poring through two to three books a week. Her friends said she had an encyclopedia for a mind. She enjoyed crosswords, picture puzzles and card games. She loved camping, fishing, flower gardening; she traveled extensively and won many golf tournaments over her lifetime.

Elisabet belonged to Elk’s Women’s Auxiliary and Ladies Aid Society, and was active in all the churches she attended. These include: St. Peter in Stephen, Minn.; Salem Lutheran in McIntosh, Minn.; First Lutheran in Bemidji, Minn.; and Trinity Lutheran and Lake City Community Church, both in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Elisabet is lovingly remembered by her son, Carter P. (Bonnie) Jensen; daughter, Marla M. (David) Forsythe; daughters-in-law, Barbara Jensen and Kerri Jensen; grandchildren, David Jensen, Debbie (Jensen) Konsor, Tara (Jensen) Gunder, Brian Jensen, Britta (Forsythe) Jacobsen, Haley (Jensen) Boshart, Katie Jensen, Bailey and Cody Campbell; nine great-grandchildren; nieces, Mona Stardig, Judy Jensen and Mary Jensen; and nephews, John Jensen and Gary Jensen. She was preceded in death by her parents, Oskar and Edith; sister, Ency A. Stardig; brother-in-law, Orton Stardig; her loving husband, Jens P. Jensen; and her sons, Jens P. Jensen Jr. and Keith A. Jensen. Blessed be her memory.