Edith Bernette Finley

EDITH BERNETTE FINLEY
A celebration of life worship service for Edith Finley will be held Tuesday, December 2, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, Hayfield, MN with Reverend Paul Hauschild officiating. Interment will be in Fairview Cemetery in Hayfield, MN.
Mrs. Finley 83, of Hayfield, MN died Friday, November 28, 2008, at St. Mary's Hospital, Rochester.
Edith Bernette Holtan was born at home in Canisteo township, rural Kasson, MN to Alfred Holtan and Minnie (Lee) Holtan on November 12, 1925. She attended country school District 78, and graduated as salutatorian from Kasson High School in 1945, and was valedictorian of her teachers' training class at St. Charles, MN in 1946. Edith taught one year at the District 70 school, south of Byron and three years at her home school District 78. Edith was baptized at West St. Olaf Lutheran Church in rural Hayfield by Rev. J. C. K. Preus and confirmed in 1940 by Rev. T.E. Moen at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Kasson, MN. On June 25, 1950 she married Dallas Finley at St. John's Lutheran Church, Kasson, MN and they made their home in Hayfield. Their children are Bryan (Becky) Finley, Northfield, MN; Barbara (Keith) Finley-Shea, Lyle, MN; and Bernette (Scott) Finley-Drawe, Plymouth, MN.
Edith was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, Hayfield; Women of the ELCA, Grace Circle, served on the church council, chaired the church centennial committee 1977-78, collecting pictures of all the pastors who had served Trinity and all of was a member of the Field Crest Nursing Home Auxiliary, Hayfield, working on fundraising and service projects for the nursing home. She and Dallas collected and delivered clothing to the Marie Sanvick Center, Minneapolis for many years, and volunteered at the shelter for homeless people at Our Savior's Lutheran, Minneapolis, and served as a Cub Scout den mother. Edith loved to dance, sing and make music, learning to play piano and organ by ear, as a child and to chord for her father and older brothers when they played their fiddles. For a number of years she has accompanied the fiddlers who play monthly in Hayfield. She loved the homemaking arts of clothing care and enjoyed hanging laundry in the fresh air, loved to sew and was skilled in repairing and remaking new garments from old. She was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers and three sisters. She is survived by her husband, Dallas, her children, 8 grandchildren; a brother, Rev. Leon Holtan, Rochester, and sisters, Bernice Crouch, West Concord, MN and Marion Lund, Chatfield, MN. Visitation will be Monday from 4:00–8:00 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, Hayfield, MN. Memorials preferred to Trinity Lutheran Church in lieu of flowers. Czaplewski Family Funeral Home in Hayfield is in charge of arrangements.
Blessed be her memory.