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The American contralto and music teacher, Beverly Brown Rolfsrud, graduated high school in Fargo, attended Wheaton College. In 1941, she married the teacher and writer Erling Nicolai Rolfsrud (September 3, 1912-August 21, 1994). After the college, she joined her husband in Moorhead where she was the first married woman to graduate from Concordia College. They moved to Deerwood, Minnesota in 1945 where she gave private music lessons while raising her children. In 1952 the Rolfsruds moved to Alexandria near Lake Andrew and Beverly continued to teach music and lead church choirs.
With her husband as accompanist, Beverly Brown Rolfsrud performed Sacred Concerts throughout the Upper Midwest. In 1967 she produced a record of sacred music from George Frideric Handel's Messiah and other composers. Over the years she taught hundreds of young adults the rudiments of music and the joy of performing. She briefly taught music in the Brooten, Minnesota schools. She enjoyed quilting, cross-country skiing, tennis and swimming.
Beverly Brown Rolfsrud died peacefully on January 26, 2015 at a residential home in Bloomington, Minnesota, near her family. She is survived by her six children: Becky (Allen) Jerdee, Venice, Florida, Linda (Ron) Letnes, Blaine, MN, Stan (Kathleen) Rolfsrud, Shakopee, Minnesota, Solveig (William) Shearer, Sunol, California, Stephen (Nancy) Rolfsrud, Mankato, Minnesota, and Virgil Rolfsrud, Fort Myers, Florida; 15 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. In addition to her husband Erling, she was preceded in death by her daughters-in-law Jeni (Virgil) Rolfsrud and Becky Lynn (Virgil) Rolfsrud, brothers Ralph Brown, Richard Brown, Bayard Brown, and sisters Dorothy Chase and Kaye Eichenberger. |
