Lois Helen (Gorder) Barsness, 91, of Prior Lake died Sunday, Jan. 20 at English Rose Suites in Edina.
Lois and her husband, E. Norman (“Norm”) Barsness, bought Prior Lake State Bank in 1965. When Norm died in 1989, Lois was elected as the bank’s vice president and director. She continued to coordinate the bank’s Classic 50 Club for seniors up until a few years ago, said her son, current bank President Bob Barsness.
Lois “really enjoyed the people in Prior Lake and became good friends with a lot of the people who were born and raised in Prior Lake,” Bob said. “So she wasn’t quite a townie, but she certainly had a lot of good relationships with people who were originally from town.”
Lois and Norm, a pharmacist by trade, married in 1938 and lived in Richfield up until 1965, when the couple bought the Prior Lake bank. Lois was born and raised in Aberdeen, S.D. She attended Aberdeen Normal College and later the University of Minnesota, where she met Norm. The couple had three children – sons Bob and Dick Barsness and daughter Debbie Holmes, bank vice president and human resources director.
Holmes said her mother spent the last couple of years of her life at English Rose Suites, a facility for patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
“It was a wonderful place. They took excellent care of her. We’re not sure that she had Alzheimer’s, because she knew who I was up until the very end,” Holmes said. “But she had some type of memory loss or dementia. She lived in an actual house with six residents in a neighborhood, so it wasn’t a nursing home. They did everything in their power to help her.”
As the Classic 50 Club coordinator, Lois arranged trips, luncheons and events for local seniors. She also was a member of the Minneapolis chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, the world’s largest fraternal organization for men and women.
“She was outgoing. She enjoyed life. She really got along with everybody, regardless of who they were and where they were from,” Bob Barsness said.
“She liked socializing. She loved having parties,” Holmes added. “She was a loving mother. You just couldn’t ask for anybody better.”
Lois sang in the Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church choir and also enjoyed golfing, traveling, painting and spending time with friends. She also sang in a church choir in Sun City, Ariz., where she had a winter home.
She is survived by children, Dick (Lee) Barsness of Bloomington, Bob (Gail) Barsness of Prior Lake, Debbie (Randy) Holmes of Prior Lake; grandchildren, Tia (Lance) Black, Tona (Joel) Luecke, Tara (Cody) Olson, Eric (Beth) Barsness, Kari (Mike Cobb) Barsness, Krista Barsness, Jeffrey (Janelle) Holmes, Kristin Holmes, Kelsey Holmes; great-grandchildren, Kayla and Jordan Black, Jacob and Noah Luecke, Macy Olson, Ethan Barsness, Autumn Barsness, Savannah Cobb.
Besides her husband, Edwin “Norm” Barsness, she is preceded in death by parents; siblings, Bud (Mickey) Gorder, Bob (Betty) Gorder, Bill (Ann) Gorder, Peggy (Morrie) Meyers.
Visitation was Wednesday at Ballard-Sunder Funeral Home in Prior Lake. The funeral service was Thursday at Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church.
Memorials are preferred to The Alzheimer’s Association, Minnesota/North Dakota chapter, 4550 W. 77th Street, Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN, 55435.
Lori Carlson can be reached at (952) 345-6378 or editor@plamerican.com.