Big Pigeon webpage Family > Larsen/Hansen News, updated by RAC 21 May 2021.
Bob Christiansen's News Items about the Descendants and Collateral Relatives of:
- Niels (Christensen) Larsen & Maren Larsen
- Peter Hansen & Dorthe Hansen
Added 21 May 2021: In Memorium - Richard Torneten - my cousin, husband of Kathy Hessel, and the grandson of Andrew A. Larson and Karen Margrethe Hansen.
Google's 2014 view of the Torneten farmstead
Richard Torneten, age 84, passed away peacefully December 22, 2020. He was born May 6, 1936 to the late Oscar and Ethel (Larson) Torneten in Council Bluffs, IA. Richard graduated from Underwood High School with the class of '54 and was a lifelong farmer. He was a member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Treynor and active in Church Council. He was involved at Westfair as the beef superintendent and on the sale committee, he also was a long time member of the Pottawattamie Conservation Board and Bethany Lutheran Home Board. He was a tremendous supporter of the Underwood Community School
Richard is survived by his wife, Kathy Torneten; daughter, Marsha (Kevin) Rath; son, Mark Torneten; sisters, Marilyn (Richard) Formanek and Jeanette (Uwe) Malchow; grandchildren, Alexandra (Evgenly) Shishkin, Emily Rath, Olivia Rath, Landon Torneten and Ashlyn Torneten; a host of other family and friends.
Visitation will be held from 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM at Hoy Kilnoski Funeral Home on Saturday, December 26, 2020.Funeral Service will be held at 12:30 PM at Hoy Kilnoski Funeral Home on Saturday, December 26, 2020. Internment in Cedar Lawn Cemetery. The family will direct memorials.
Richard is survived by his wife, Kathy Torneten; daughter, Marsha (Kevin) Rath; son, Mark Torneten; sisters, Marilyn (Richard) Formanek and Jeanette (Uwe) Malchow; grandchildren, Alexandra (Evgenly) Shishkin, Emily Rath, Olivia Rath, Landon Torneten and Ashlyn Torneten; a host of other family and friends.
Visitation will be held from 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM at Hoy Kilnoski Funeral Home on Saturday, December 26, 2020.Funeral Service will be held at 12:30 PM at Hoy Kilnoski Funeral Home on Saturday, December 26, 2020. Internment in Cedar Lawn Cemetery. The family will direct memorials.
Added 18 Sep 2017: My cousin, Virginia "Ginny" Larsen, has published her second book. You can purchase either of Ginny's books by going to amazon.com, selecting Books by scrolling at the left of the search box, entering Virginia Larsen in the middle of the search box, and then clicking the magnifying glass. Ginny's two books are:
Shadow Time.
The Book of Lurch.
Shadow Time.
- Ginny's first book is a translation of Schattenzeit, a collection of short vignettes about children living in small-town western Germany during the Nazi era. Some stories are fictional, others are based on recollections of the author, Lilo Beil and others. (Ginny knew Lilo Beil, now a writer of crime novels, from Ginny's years teaching in Germany.)
- Ginny's translation is accessible to middle-school or older readers. Speaking personally, I reacted emotionally to Shadow Time. My time in the United States Army in postwar Germany was spent in the area Lilo Beil writes about. Both Martha and I have German as well as Jewish friends, acquaintances, and extended family members who have talked with us about their experiences during this horrifying period in history. This was a time when what was arguably the most advanced country on Earth descended into depravity, taking much of Europe with it.
The Book of Lurch.
- In this small book, Ginny recollects portions of her life using as a unifying theme stories about Lurch, a pet she had for many years.