Sylvia Wester Flint

Sylvia Flint, 96, of Fargo, ND, passed away surrounded by her three children on Thursday, March 27, 2014.

Sylvia M. Wester was born on the Hagen farmstead west of Horace, ND, on February 17, 1918, to Oscar D. and Agnette M. Wester. She attended a one-room school in rural Warren, ND, and graduated from Davenport High School in 1936.

Sylvia attended Moorhead State Teachers’ College (now MSUM) in Moorhead and worked on several farms for neighbors and friends as a seamstress, cook, nanny, and housekeeper. She was very fond of horses and herded dairy cattle, swathed grain, and planted crops using her dad’s team of horses on the Hagen farm during the Great Depression.

Sylvia met Harold Flint in 1938, and they were married on March 24, 1940, in Minneapolis, where she worked as a housekeeper. Harold got a job with a newspaper in Chicago, and they moved there in 1940.

Harold Flint, Jr., was born in December 1941 and died in June 1942. While Harold was in the US Army during WWII, Sylvia moved back to Fargo, where she and Harold raised their three children.

Sylvia worked as a bookkeeper for Shotwell Floral for 17 years until she retired in 1982.

She was a life member of the Cass County Historical Society, and her childhood farm home was donated to Bonanzaville in 1968. She was also a long-time member of Daughters of Dakota Pioneers and Bonanza Belles, and participated in historical dress at every annual Pioneer Days celebration from its start in 1968 through 2013. She was also a lifetime member of the Sons of Norway Kringen Lodge in Fargo, worked as a volunteer at the club for over 20 years, and also sang in the Kringen Choir.

As a world traveler, she made numerous trips to visit her sister, Dorothy, in Panama. She also took many trips and ocean cruises to Norway, Sweden, Germany, England, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Aruba, Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, and Mexico.

A strong, loving and fiercely independent woman, she lived on her own, in her own home in north Fargo, until her hospitalization on March 20. As a mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Sylvia doted on her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and celebrated her last birthday at a reunion in February 2014.

Sylvia is survived by her three children, Bill (Pat) Flint, Fargo, ND; Nancy (Dale) Amundson, Menomonie, WI; James (Patti) Flint, Camp Verde, AZ; twelve grandchildren, Jason, Andy (Amy), and Laurie Flint; Jennifer (Mike) Maclean, Sara Flint, Billy, Michael (Abbie), Tony, and Jesse Gilgenbach; and Chad (Diane), Cory (Tammie), and Jeremy Amundson; and seventeen great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband; parents; two sisters; one brother; grandson, Trevor Amundson; parents; and infant son, Harold Flint, Jr.