Rachel Ann Tompt

Rachel Ann Hansen Tompt (Rae Tompt) died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 89 in the early morning hours of May 18, 2016, at the Countryside Inn Memory Care facility in Rosholt, South Dakota.

Rachel Ann Hansen was born in Valley City, North Dakota, on August 6, 1926, to Hans A. and Eda Davidson Hansen. She attended and graduated from Green Township School and briefly attended Valley City State Teacher’s College before transferring to North Dakota Agricultural College (now NDSU) in Fargo where she graduated with a home economics degree in 1948. In that year she also married Kenneth Tompt.

Rae and Ken settled in Fargo in 1952. Rae was active in the Hawthorne Elementary PTA, the Olivet Lutheran Church Sunday School, played in a bridge group, and took up golfing. She also enjoyed gardening, fishing, and swimming at their lake cabin on Big Cormorant Lake.
In 1967, Rachel went back to school at Moorhead State College (now MSU-Moorhead) for a degree in elementary education. She taught 5th grade in the Fargo Catholic Schools, first at St. Anthony’s and then at Holy Spirit until she retired in 1985.

Following retirement, Rae and Ken spent time traveling during the winter months until they purchased a winter home in Apache Junction, Arizona. They spent many happy winters there until Ken died in 2003. Rae continued to winter in Arizona until 2010. She spent the remainder of her life in Fargo until moving into the memory care facility in Rosholt this past winter.

Among the activities that she enjoyed throughout her life were golfing, bridge, and traveling. She also enjoyed knitting, crocheting, sewing, and quilting. She knitted or crocheted afghans for each of her daughters, their spouses and all of the grandchildren. She also made several quilted bedspreads, wall hangings, and table runners for family members.

Rachel had a wonderful gift in her ability to play the piano by ear. She could play any song if she knew the melody. She learned to do this as a girl on the farm, playing both for her own enjoyment and to accompany her father, who could fiddle. Something she truly enjoyed during her last 6-8 years was playing the piano for the residents of various nursing homes in the Fargo- Moorhead area. She continued to play even after she became a resident of an assisted living and memory care facility.

Rachel was preceded in death by her parents, her three brothers, Howard, Gordon, and W. Richard (Dick) Hansen, as well as her husband, Ken.

She is survived and will be missed by her three daughters: Beth (James) Cummings, Sioux Falls, SD; Gail (Robert) O’Brien, Britton, SD; and Priscilla Herman, Moorhead, MN. She also leaves eight grandchildren: Melissa Cummings, Chad (Kristen) O’Brien, Meghan (Adam) Irving, Leah Herman, Nathan (Ann) O’Brien, Emily Herman, Allison (Justin) Phillips, and Michelle Herman, and seven great- grandchildren (Evan, Elijah, Joseph, Benjamin, Caleb, and Hezekiah O’Brien and Sage Phillips). She is also survived by four sisters-in-law: Helen Hansen, Fargo; Ruby Hansen, Valley City, ND; Doris Elness, Bismarck, ND; and Margaret Tompt, Homestead, Montana.