Funeral services for 102-year-old Elida A. Hunstad of St. James, Minnesota, will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday, July 25, 2014, at the First Lutheran Church in St. James, the Rev. Carla Reierson officiating. The church is located at 716 6th Avenue South.
Interment will be in the St. Olaf Lutheran Church Cemetery, located south of Odin, Minnesota.
Fellowship and lunch will follow the interment at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in rural Odin.
Visitation will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 24, 2014, in Sturm Funeral Home-St. James, located at 906 10th Avenue South. A second visitation will be held from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the church the day of the services.
Elida A. Hunstad passed away on Monday, July 21, 2914, Good Samaritan Society-Pleasant View Nursing Home in St. James.
Elida Alma Thorson was born on October 8, 1911, on the family farm in rural Odin, the daughter of Anton amd Clara (Kolden) Thorson. She was a lifelong member of St. Olaf Lutheran Church or rural Odin, where she was baptized and confirmed. She attended rural school at District #93 in Martin County and Odin High School for a short time before going to work as a cleaning lady at the Boston Hotel in St. James. She also worked for a family in Fairmont for a time.
On November 29, 1930, she was united in marriage to Purdy Hunstad at the parsonage in Madelia. The couple made their home on several different farms before moving the their own place where they had their son, Arlo. Elida was a farm wife; she worked with Purdy on the farm for the next 38 years. The couple retired in 1969 and moved into St. James in 1970, she worked at the Rustic Inn as a waitress and cook. After the Rustic Inn closed, she went to work at the Boston as a waitress for a couple of years.
Purdy later suffered from health issues, so Elida stayed home to care for him. In 1997, Purdy passed away. Elida sold the home and moved into an apartment, to Praire View for three years and later to Brandt Ridge. It was there she fell and broke her hip, which prompted her move to Pleasant View.
Elida was active in church activities, serving as a Sunday School teacher, as a member of the ladies aid and helping with various office positions. She enjoyed getting together monthly with a group of ladies from St. Olaf for coffee and celebrate birthdays.
Elida is survived by her son, Arlo (Marilyn) Hunstad of St. James; granddaughters, Debra (Kenneth) Lindberg of Lafayette, Minnesota and Angela (Dennis) Mott of St. Peter, Minnesota; niece, Orra (Bill) Eckman of Fairmont, Minnesota; nephew, Milo (Lucy) Thorson of Butterfield, Minnesota and great-grandchildren, Simon, Tasha and Ashlee Lindberg and Emmalie Mott.
She was preceded in death by her husband, parents, brothers and sisters-in-law, Carl and Hazel Thorson, Eddie and Adeline Hunstad, sisters-in-law, Mabel and Casper Nordby, Thea and Arnold Carlson and Helen and Joel Lynn.
