In Loving Memory LuRene A. Carlson 12/2/1918 - 7/19/2009

    LuRene A. Carlson, 90, died peacefully with her daughters at her side at the Iowa City Hospice House of Mercy on Sunday, July 19, 2009, following a brief illness.   

    Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m. Thursday, July 23, 2009, at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Vinton with Pastor Mark C. Urlaub officiating.  Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 22, at Van Steenhuyse-Russell Funeral Home in Vinton and also one hour prior to services at the church on Thursday.  Interment will be in Evergreen Cemetery, Vinton.    

    LuRene was born December 2, 1918, in Urbana, Iowa, the daughter of Emmett and Lena Brody Ferguson.  She attended school at the Upper Stone School in Benton Township and at the Lockhart School (Polk No. 6) north of Urbana and graduated from Vinton’s Lincoln High School in 1936.  LuRene worked as a telephone operator for six years before her marriage to Einar Carlson on March 18, 1945, at the Christian Church in Vinton. The couple farmed northeast of Vinton near Cheney before retiring and moving to Vinton in 1973 to manage Imperial Apartments. In 1980, they moved into their home on First Avenue in Vinton.  Einar preceded LuRene in death on November 12, 2000.  In 2006, LuRene moved to Walden Place Retirement Community in Iowa City.    

    LuRene was an active member and Sunday School teacher at the First Christian Church and later at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Vinton.  She was a 4-H leader for twenty-five years, a member of Farm Bureau Women, Eastern Star, Cheney Club, P.E.O., Virginia Gay Hospital Auxiliary and the Benton County Historical Society.  She enjoyed cross-stitching, quilting, gardening, cooking, canning and was renowned for baking Swedish tea rings.  She also enjoyed genealogy, leather tooling, cake decorating, Bingo and dominoes.  She was honored as the Vinton Women’s Club Woman of the Year in 1984.   

    She is survived by three daughters: Linda Nudd of Iowa City; Mary (Scott) Bolenbaugh of Devon, PA; and Crystal (Marvin) Gordon of Webster City, IA; eight grandchildren: Lyn (Laura) Nudd,  Lori (Dennis) Mascardo, Lance (Eva) Nudd, Kyle (Darci Darnell) Bolenbaugh, Sam Bolenbaugh, Nathan Gordon and fiancée, Liz Miller, Jarod Gordon and Christopher Gordon; four great-grandchildren: Caroline and Julianna Mascardo and Magdalena and Henry Bolenbaugh; two sisters-in-law: Marilyn Ferguson of Vinton and Bernice Carlson of San Jose, CA.   

    She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Einar; two brothers, Earle and Max Ferguson; and one sister, Jennie (Mrs. George) Hensing.   

    Memorial contributions may be made to: Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church Memorial Fund, 1206 C Ave., Vinton, IA 52349; or Iowa City Hospice House of Mercy, 1025 Wade St., Iowa City, IA 52240.