Doris Margaret Olsen was born September 26, 1930 near Burke, South Dakota to William and Lena (Schrader) Woehl and she died December 28, 2009 at the Rosebud Country Care Center in Gregory, South Dakota at the age of 79 years, 3 months and 2 days following a battle with lung cancer.
Doris attended Neuharth School south of Burke and graduated from Burke High School in 1948. While attending high school she worked for Ollie Larson at the Burke Caf and Hotel. She left Burke in 1950 and moved to Rapid City where she worked for almost a year before venturing to Omaha, Nebraska. She lived in Omaha for 53 years. She worked for two grocery stores and an ammunition facility in Mead, Nebraska. In 1958 she started working for Western Electric and worked there for 31 years, retiring in 1990.
In 1969, Doris was united in marriage to Clarence (Ole) Olsen from Brainerd, Minnesota, no children were born to this union. Ole passed away in 1979 and she continued to live in Omaha.
In July of 2000, she began a volunteer job sewing little hug-a-bears. She had sewn over 20,000 through July of 2009. After moving to Burke she was the only one they could find to sew them so they would send them to her in South Dakota. Before becoming ill with cancer she would drive to Omaha to pick up bears that had not been sewn. Sometimes there would be as many as 800 at one time. She loved her computer.
Doris moved back to Burke in November of 2003, happy to be back in her home town.
Doris was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her brothers: Harry and Don; her sisters: Esther (Smith) Lindwurm and Anna Smith; her brothers-in-law: Basil Smith, Martin Smith, Carl Vance and Clarence Cline; her sister-in-law, Gladys Woehl and several nieces, nephews and cousins.
Doris is survived by her siblings: Eugene Woehl of Coffeyville, KS; Viola Cline of Sioux City, IA; Velma Vance of Gering, NE; Robert and wife Loraine of Fremont, NE; Kenneth and wife Barb of Thomson, IL; a sister-in-law, Nancy Woehl of Morrison, IL; and a brother-in-law, William Lindwurm of Burke, SD.
Funeral services will be held on Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 1:30 PM at Clausen Funeral Home in Burke. Burial will be in the Graceland Cemetery, Burke. Visitation will be prior the service at the funeral home.