Norma Helene Olson

Norma's Celebration of Life will be livestreamed here: https://vimeo.com/906850811

Her tribute video may be viewed here: https://www.tributeslides.com/tributes/show/XGZFW94K6Q296792

Norma Helene Olson, 81, Fargo, formerly of Velva and rural Balfour, passed away peacefully on January 23, 2024, at Eventide Fargo under the care of Ethos Hospice.

Norma Helene Ellenson was born to Joseph and Joyce (Smith) Ellenson in Colfax, ND, in 1942 and was raised in Walcott, ND. She graduated from Walcott High School in 1960. Norma was never afraid of hard work and had many interesting jobs in her youth, including babysitting, housecleaning, operating the switchboard at the local phone company, and working as a waitress at her aunt Vicky Ellenson’s Café in Walcott. It was there she met her future husband Gene, who worked as a diesel mechanic at Wigtil Implement just down the street.

On October 24, 1964, she was married to Gene Olson of Balfour, ND, at Zion Evangelical United Brethren Church of rural Walcott. They made their home on the Olson homestead farm near Balfour, where they raised two sons.

Once her boys were off to school, Norma returned to waitressing and worked for many years at Pete’s Café in Balfour and the Dakota Prairie Café in Butte, ND. She and Gene moved to Velva, ND in the fall of 2001 when Gene retired from farming. Norma worked at the Lariat Restaurant and then at Main Street Diner in Velva until she retired in 2014.

When not in her kitchen cooking or baking, she enjoyed working in her flowerbeds and her vegetable garden and keeping her yard and home neat and tidy. She loved sitting on her patio, hearing the birds sing, and having a cup of coffee on an early summer morning. She was well known for her canning and jelly making, regularly supplying friends and family with bountiful harvests from her well-tended garden. Norma moved to Fargo in 2021 to be closer to her siblings, and she helped care for her brother Gordy until his death in 2022.

Norma was a member of the Balfour Lutheran Church and active in the Evangelical Lutheran Church Women. She was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Lawrence E. Meidl American Legion Post #270 of Butte, and she and Gene were members of the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge #822 in Minot and avid polka dancers with the Northwest Polkateers. She was an active member of the Velva Senior Citizens, where she could often be found in the kitchen helping prepare and serve meals until moving to Fargo in 2021.

Norma is survived by her sons, Arden Olson (Jennifer Oberstar), Maple Grove, MN and Merlen Olson (Stuart Teigen), Minneapolis, MN; granddaughters, Annika and Rona Olson; sisters, Marjorie (Gene) Wolter, Wadena, MN, Jeanette (Marvin) Baarstad, Fargo, ND, Bonnie (Allan) Christianson, Kindred, ND, brother Ray Ellenson, Virginia, MN; sisters-in-law, Eileen Peterson, Detroit Lakes, MN and Beverly (Richard) Lobsinger Williston, ND; brother-in-law, Roger Kleppe, Norco, CA; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Gene; her parents; brothers, Jerome and Gordon Ellenson; sisters-in-law, Pam Ellenson and Rheta Kleppe; brother-in-law, Dale Peterson; and niece, Michelle Kleppe Scott.

Norma’s Celebration of Life will take place at 11 am on Saturday, February 3, 2024, in the Great Hall at Sanctuary Event Center, with a luncheon to follow downstairs in the Lower Hall. The Celebration of Life will be livestreamed on the funeral home website. Visitation will be one hour before the service. Interment of ashes at Balfour Cemetery will take place in the spring.