Grace Evangeline Berg

Grace Berg, age 99 of Atwater passed away on Monday, March 14, one month short of her 100th birthday. Grace had been a resident of Carris Health Care Center in Willmar for the past four years.

A celebration of life service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, June 17, at the Atwater United Methodist Church.  Visitation will be one hour prior to the service.  Interment will be at Union Cemetery.  In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Atwater Area Help for Seniors, the local organization that was so helpful to Grace during her last years in Atwater.  Arrangements are entrusted to the Peterson Brothers Atwater Funeral Home.  www.petersonbrothers.com

Grace Evangeline Holmgren was born on April 14, 1922, to Frank and Sophy Holmgren on the family farm near Rosendale, MN. She was the eleventh of 12 children. As it was for many of her generation, her early years were challenging during the Depression, especially with the death of her father in 1925.

Grace attended country school in the Rosendale area, and then graduated from Litchfield High School in 1939. She met Leslie “Duke” Berg while working at a café in Atwater, and they were married in 1942. Duke’s work and business pursuits took them to Arizona and California in the 40s, back to Minnesota to build and run a lake resort near Dassel in the 50s, and then to Atwater in 1959 to start the 4Bs Drive Inn. Grace was the cook and got to know many local high school girls who worked as carhops and cooks in the 60s. The 4Bs, with their secret chicken recipe, was the popular place to go for “fine dining” in Atwater back in the day.

Due to Duke’s health, they sold the Drive Inn in 1972. Grace worked at Atwater Drug Store for the next few years and volunteered at the Kandiyohi County Day Activity Center. Duke passed away in 1979, and Grace continued to live in Atwater until moving into Carris Health Care in 2017.

Grace was well-read, had a good sense of humor, and enjoyed visiting with friends and relatives alike. She often traveled to see her children and grandchildren in Moorhead, Aberdeen, Fargo and eventually the Twin Cities, making the drive even into her 80s. Her grandson Paul would tease her and ask how many speeding tickets she got on the way. “None that I stopped for,” she replied.

Between Grace and Duke’s siblings and their spouses, there were 35 people in that generation of the Berg and Holmgren families. Grace was the last one remaining of that “greatest generation.”

Grace Berg is survived by her son Tom Berg and wife Colleen of Lakeville, MN, and son Al Berg and wife Terinne of Fargo, ND. Also surviving are grandchildren Jillayne Berg, Erin Chamlee, Kyle Berg, and Paul Berg, as well as six great-grandchildren.

A tribute to the wonderful team at Carris Health Care Center. They genuinely cared for mom and treated her so well in her final years.