Marilyn L. Hanson

Marilyn L. Hanson, 88, of Cedar Falls, died Thursday, March 17, 2016, at Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo. She was born June 22, 1927, in Hutchinson, Minnesota, daughter of Peter and Martha Jensen Juul. She married Roger Hanson, whom she knew from childhood, on August 13, 1950 in Hutchinson. She attended Dana College for two years and then taught one-room school in Stahls Lake, Minn. for a year before returning to college and graduating from Mankato State. She taught 2nd grade in Lincoln Public Schools in Nebraska while Roger was a graduate student at University of Nebraska. She earned her Masters in Special Education from the University of Northern Iowa in the 1970s and taught special education at Dunkerton, Jesup, North Cedar and Hudson schools. Roger and Marilyn took their family of three children to Denmark from 1966 to 1967, and returned home with four children. That fourth child, their daughter Mette, was baptized in Denmark in the same church where Marilyn’s father had been baptized. After retiring, she was active in the St. Paul Lutheran Quilting Group for decades, where the ladies produced and donated many thousands of quilts for Lutheran World Relief. She was a founding member of a group of walking women who were out exercising together rain, snow or shine. Marilyn also worked doing research for the Danish American Archives and Library in Blair, Neb. Roger’s word to describe Marilyn was “adventurous.” One of Marilyn’s favorite quotes on a trip to Europe in 1989 was, “I wonder what today’s surprise will be.” In 1989, Marilyn and Roger took one of their many trips – this time to Bosnia. Following this trip, they played host to an exchange student whose family they met and stayed with in Bosnia -- a young woman named Admirela. She stayed in the United States when the Yugoslavian civil war broke out and became their “Bosnian daughter.” Marilyn is survived by her husband, Roger; two daughters, Kathy (Darron) Knutson of New Brighton, MN, and Mette (Dan Murdoch) Hanson of Seattle, WA; two sons, Bruce (Stephanie) Hanson of Falcon Heights, MN, and Ralph (Pamela) Hanson of Kearney, NE; seven grandchildren: Will and John Hanson, Erik and Andrew Hanson, Jens, Niels and Anders Knutson; and two great grandsons, Gabriel and Henrik. She was preceded in death by her two brothers, Russell and Harold Juul; and a sister, Doris Lund.

Marilyn L. Hanson

June 22, 1927 - March 17, 2016