Obituaries

Madison – Berglund, R. Louise
Born in 1914, one of the six children of Roy and Amelia Grimm, who farmed near Wauneta in southwestern Nebraska, Louise (never "Rita," despite her parents' mysterious use of that name on her birth certificate) was to become a keen observer of American culture during rapidly changing times. After a year of teaching rural school, Louise decided that nursing was her calling and went off to Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in Omaha for the requisite training. Upon graduating, she spent a short time at the Los Angeles Children's Hospital. Then public health nursing emerged as her real calling. She attended Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University) in Nashville to obtain that specialized degree.
After graduation, she got a job with the new Michigan Public Health Department where she met a handsome x-ray bus technician, Gunnard Berglund, who had emigrated with his parents from the Swedish part of Finland when he was only two. They married and lived in Escanaba where she began work for the Delta County Health Department. Two years after the birth of their daughter, Carol, the young couple moved to Green Bay to be near Gunnard's family. Carol was thus able to enjoy a near-sibling relationship with six first cousins and shared with her parents the love of Gunnard's two sisters and their husbands and Gunnard's parents. Louise had, as well as a profession in which she excelled, a deep and lasting relationship with Trinity Lutheran Church (E.L.C.A.) of Green Bay, where she and Gunnard were active for 38 years and where Louise taught the Bethel Bible Series.
After Gunnard's death in 1988, Louise moved to Madison to live with her daughter, Carol. They were to have a lively co-existence in both Madison and DeForest, where they shared eight acres with two llamas, two alpacas, five goats, three dogs and several successive women-in-transition. Ultimately returning to the north side of Madison, Louise continued to manage a large house, shared with a large dog and an occasional young man or woman in need of temporary shelter as they recovered from alcoholism.
Happily, when that role became too much for an aging body, Louise was able to share an apartment with her honorary grandson, Blaise Besant, who cared for a�"and cooked gourmet meals for a�" Louise. He also threw a spectacular 100th birthday celebration for her last summer, which included pontoon boat rides for the guests (Louise got to drive one!) and an elegant meal at the boat landing in Tenney Park.
Other highlights of her later years were her "trip of a lifetime," to Australia and New Zealand with Carol and her partner, Jane, and made possible by Blaise's generosity; a 90th birthday river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam and several long and colorful camping trips with Carol and Jane to both western and eastern states.
Louise is survived by her daughter, Carol (Jane Rowe); brother, Bill (Myrna Ficke) of Sheridan WY; adopted grandson, Blaise; adopted daughters: Jodi Cowle, Elaine Stevens and Julie Chase and many, many friends. All cherished her lively mind, great humor and fine story telling.
Louise's funeral will be at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, 2401 Atwood Ave. on Tuesday, April 14th at 11 a.m. There will also be a service in her memory at Trinity Lutheran Church, Green Bay, sometime in May.
The family will forward memorial gifts to the Madison College Foundation's Smart Future - Nursing scholarship fund for nursing students. To view and sign this guestbook, please visit: www.ryanfuneralservice.com