Nancy Thorson, 67, Waite Park, MN

Nancy Thorson

Nancy A. Thorson, 67, of Waite Park, died Saturday, April 5, 2008, at the University of Minnesota Medical Center Fairview in Minneapolis.
Nancy was born Nov. 29, 1940, in Fergus Falls, to Walter and Harriet (Garberg) Davidson. She attended Madison Grade School, Washington Junior High, and Roosevelt Senior High in Fergus Falls; the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, N.D., and Moorhead State University in Moorhead.
She worked for Yellow Pages in Crookston, and Bell Telephone in
Minneapolis.
On Aug. 25, 1962, she married Donald O. Hedman at First
Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls. While he was in Vietnam, she worked as an operating room technician at St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth, and as a medical secretary in the Anesthesia School at Abbot-Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis. They were divorced on Oct. 22, 1968.
Nancy married her high school sweetheart, Bruce M. Thorson on June 22, 1969, at First Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls. They moved to Minneapolis and she assisted Dr. Mary Price with kidney research in the Mayo Building on the University of Minnesota campus while Bruce finished graduate school in engineering.
Eric J. Thorson was born on April 21, 1971, and Anne M. Thorson was born on April 23, 1973, and she became a full-time mother and homemaker. They moved to Green Bay, Wis., and then to Williston,
N.D., where she was a Girl Scout leader, and Billings, Mont., where she was secretary of the King of Glory Lutheran Church.
In 1991, she and Bruce returned to Minnesota and purchased a townhouse in Waite Park. In 2001, she had a lung transplant at the University of Minnesota.
In 2004, she and Bruce built a house on her family plot on Wall Lake, east of Fergus Falls. The same year, she became one of the first transplant patients to receive a gastric bypass. Nancy was a member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in St. Cloud.
Survivors include her husband, Bruce Thorson of Waite Park; a son, Rev. Eric (Nancy) Thorson and their children, Leif and Marit of Billings, Mont.; daughter, Anne (Gary Ludwitzke) Thorson of White Bear Lake; brother, Charles (Judy) Davidson of Albertville; and seven nephews and nieces.
She was preceded in death by her parents and grandson, Rune David Thorson.
Memorials preferred to LifeSource, Organ and Tissue Donation or Tri-County Humane Society.
Visitation: one hour prior to the service at the church on Wednesday
Service: 11 a.m. Wednesday, at
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St. Cloud
Clergy: Rev. Dee Pederson
Burial: Bethlehem Lutheran Church Columbarium.
Funeral Home: Benson Funeral Home, St. Cloud