INGA HAUGEN

CHESTER - Inga (Skari) Haugen, 105, a native North Dakotan, died of natural causes Thursday, April 22, 2004, at a Chester nursing home.

A funeral service will be held at the Rockman Funeral Chapel in Chester at 10 a.m. Wednesday, with reception following at the Sweetgrass Lodge. Additional services will be held at the Mayville Lutheran Church in Mayville, N.D., at 3 p.m. Friday. Burial will follow at the Mayville Cemetery.

Inga Haugen was born on Jan. 27, 1899, on a farm near Kindred, N.D. to Iver Skari and Marie (Anderson) Skari. She was baptized and confirmed in the Norwegian language at the Norman Lutheran Church located near the banks of the Cheyenne River. She attended the local Dahlen grade school through the eighth grade and had remained bilingual throughout her life.

Following her education, she worked at the family farm for a number of years until it was sold. She then worked at various jobs around the community.

On Dec. 1, 1925, she married John Haugen at Everett, Wash. They moved back to North Dakota and through the 1920s and '30s lived and worked at both Kindred and Mayville. They eventually made their home permanently at Mayville, where her husband's relatives lived. She was very active in the Mayville Lutheran Church throughout her time there. In spite of tough times, they managed for many years to hang onto John's homestead near Cohagen, Mont.

During World War II, they both worked briefly in the defense industry in Washington state. At Mayville, John was street commissioner and maintenance man until retirement. Inga remained a homemaker for most of her life while looking after her mother, who lived to be just three months shy of 100 years old. Inga's husband died in 1975.

In 1978, Inga and her brother, Oliver Skari, traveled to Norway, where they visited relatives and toured the Skari farm north of Oslo. In October 1982, she sold her home in Mayville and moved to the Sweetgrass Lodge in Chester, where her brother Oliver resided. Oliver's sons, Morton and Arlo and Arlo's wife, Darlene, all of whom farmed north of Chester, looked after Inga from then on.

In June of 1995, after a short stay in the Liberty County Hospital, Inga moved into the Liberty County Nursing Home where she resided until her death. She and John had no children; however Inga considered her nieces and nephews as part of her family and took a great interest in their lives.

Inga had a tremendous loyalty to her extended family and was very generous with her time. The coffee pot was always on at Inga's house.

Inga was preceded in death by her husband and parents; brothers, Peder, Albert, Edwin, Ole, Oliver, Luther, and John; sisters, Anna and Martha; nephews, Morton Spoonheim, Iner, Duane, Carman and George Albert Skari, and Einar and Lawrence Vangerud.

Survivors include her nieces and nephews, Donald Skari of San Dimas, Calif., Betty Smith of Warner-Robins, Ga., Severt Spoonheim of Cartwright, N.D., Anne Lund of Yakima, Wash., Selma Engen of Ray, N.D., Verna Iverson and Grace Johnson of Williston, N.D., Esther Kundert of Lodi, Calif., Juliette Lundquist of Gresham, Ore., Mildred Vernon of Bismarck, N.D., Margaret Mai of Encino, Calif., Vernon Skari of Denver, Colo., Arlo and Morton Skari of Chester; and her husband's nieces and nephews, the Haugen family of Mayville, N.D.

Memorials are suggested to the Liberty County Nursing Home in Chester.

Funeral arrangements by Rockman Funeral Chapel, Chester.