Our loving mother and best friend, Genevieve Carolyn Crane, passed away at age 97 on July 2, 2019, at the Christian Health Care Center in Lynden. She was proud of her age and would always tell you she’d be turning 98 this November.
Genevieve was born on Nov. 2, 1921, to Oscar and Ethel Elmquist in the Swedish town of Lindstrom, Minnesota. Her grandparents emigrated from Varmland, Sweden, and she was proud of her Swedish heritage. She was married at age 16 to Vernon Wayne Crane of Ottumwa, Iowa, and was a devoted wife until Vernon’s passing in 1983. Always a classy dresser, Genevieve worked at Sears Roebuck in Minneapolis in the millinery department early in her marriage. In 1960, they moved to the Lake Minnetonka area where she worked as a lunchroom supervisor at Shirley Hills Elementary and a clerk at Teds Wayzata Drug. In later years she worked at Honeywell, as did Vernon (30 years) and both retired from Honeywell in Golden Valley, Minnesota.
In 2002 Genevieve moved to Lynden to be near her daughter, Peggy Warner, and son-in-law Bill. She got to know pastor Carl Crouse by volunteering to fold and stuff newsletters at Teens for Christ and Pastor Carl visited her often at the nursing home.
She lived a quiet life, but loved people and music. A devoted mother, she cherished her family. She had two children, Vernon Wayne Crane of Long Lake, Minnesota, and Peggy Carolyn Crane (Warner) of Lynden; five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Vernon; daughter-in-law Mary Crane; and five siblings.
We are grateful for sharing our life with a wonderful loving mother and will miss her deeply. Arrangements will be made for burial in her beloved Minnesota at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery alongside Vernon who was a World War II veteran.
Many thanks are extended to the staff of the Christian Health Care Center that cared for mom the past two years and helped her final days be peaceful.
Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Gillies Funeral Home and Cremation Services.
