Margaret Renstrom

Margaret A. Renstrom, age 91, of Willmar, died Friday morning, May 1st, at the Bethesda PleasantView Nursing Home in Willmar.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 AM Monday, May 11th, at Vinje Lutheran Church in Willmar with Rev. Barbara Johnson officiating. The interment will be in the Calvary Lutheran Cemetery. Friends may call from 5-7 PM Sunday at the Peterson Brothers Funeral Home and at the church one hour prior to the service.

Margaret Aurora Harriet (Hovick) Renstrom was born on January 14, 1918 in Madison, Minnesota, the daughter of Mathilde (Morseth) and Alfred Boraas. She grew up in the Lake Shore Township near Madison, attended District 84 school and graduated from Madison High School in 1936. In 1937 she graduated from Minneapolis Business College and was employed temporarily at the State Capitol in St. Paul. She traveled extensively in the United States and made a trip to Cuba in 1938 while working in Miami Beach, Florida. She then moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked for 3 1/2 years where she met her future husband, Hiram T. Hovick, also from Madison, who had just returned from working in Alaska. She was married to Hiram on October 27, 1943 in Long Beach, California. In 1944, Staff Sgt. Hiram was killed on a food dropping mission in the China/Burma/India Theater, ten days after the birth of his daughter. Margaret returned briefly to Madison before moving to Minneapolis where she maintained a home and worked as a secretary at the Veteran's Hospital. On June 10, 1961 she was married to Russell F. Renstrom and they made their home in Willmar. Margaret worked as a secretary at the Kandiyohi County Family Services. After her retirement, she and Russell spent about 14 winters at their home in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. They volunteered at the Knapp Medical Hospital in Weslaco, Texas and were active in their church. They enjoyed traveling and made trips to Alaska, Hawaii, Norway, Germany and Mexico as well as countless trips to visit family and friends. Margaret had many hobbies; knitting, Crocheting, needlepoint, hardanger, gardening, golfing, volunteering and especially loved to entertain family and friends. In recent years, they lived in Willmar year round and were active in their church, Sons of Norway and volunteered at the Rice Memorial Hospital, Willmar Public Library and Historical Society, delivered Meals on Wheels and visited the shut-ins.

She is survived by one daughter, Patricia (James "Mac") Binger of Big Arm, Montana, and one stepson, Thomas (and Kathy) Renstrom of Montgomery, New York. Also surviving are five grandchildren, eight great grandchildren, one great great grandson, one brother, Beaumont Boraas of Madison, sister-in-law Ginnie Boraas of Dawson and many nieces and nephews besides other relatives and friends. Margaret was preceded in death by her parents, both husbands (Hiram in 1944 and Russell in 2006), two brothers (Reuben and Amer Boraas) and one sister (Esther Kramer).