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Funeral
Services for Olena Opat, age 99, who died Saturday, November 17, 2007 at the
Evans Memorial Home in Cresco will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November
20, 2007 at Notre Dame Church in Cresco with burial in Our Lady of Lourdes
Cemetery at Lourdes. Visitation will be held from 11:00 a.m. until time of
services at the Church on Tuesday. Rev. Richard j. Ament officiated.
Lector is Roger White. Organist is Marilyn Novak. Pallbearers are
Dale Fenske, Rick Hanson, Russ Shields, Jamie Hanson, Dean Lickteig and Scott
Hanson.
Elisa
Olena Opat passed away, Saturday, November 17, 2007, at the Evans Memorial Home
in Cresco, Iowa, where she has made her home since July 27, 1995. She was 99
years of age.
Elisa Olena Dybevik was born in Paris Township, Howard County, Iowa, on
September 17, 1908, the daughter of Buttolf and Isabelle Marie Nelson (Foss)
Dybevik. She was baptized in the Saude Lutheran Church and attended the country
school not far from her home. Following her education, she worked at home
helping her mother care for the house and her brothers and sisters.
On October 6, 1925, Olena was united in marriage to Frank Joseph Opat in the Our
Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church at Lourdes, Iowa. She joined the church at
Lourdes, where she remained until her death. Olena and Frank made their home on
various farms northeast of Lourdes and north of Schley until they moved to
Stevensville, MT where they lived for eight to ten years, then they moved to
Pequot Lakes, MN area to be closer to their sons. Olena was living there when
Frank died in 1963. Following his death, she moved back to Montana and stayed
there until she moved back to Cresco.
Olena loved music and would record many of the songs that she enjoyed so that
she could listen to them over and over. She would sing many of them word for
word because of her enjoyment of music. When she was young, she enjoyed raising
chickens, ducks and geese. She enjoyed canning meats and loved living in the
mountains in Montana. After she got older, she enjoyed playing cards and would
spend many days playing solitaire after she entered the nursing home.
Olena is survived by her children: Raymond (Jodie) Opat of Scobey, MT, Arthur
(Patricia) Opat of Corvallis, MT, William of Hamilton, MT, Lester of Wieppe, ID,
Sherry (Darrel Olson) Hanson-Olson of Postville, IA, Lillian (Kenneth) White of
Hawkeye, IA, and Rosella Fenske of Cresco, IA; 27 grandchildren, and 68 great
grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Frank, one son, Frank
James in infancy and two daughters: Mary Shields and Irene Smith; three
grandsons, five brothers: Hans, Arthur, Emil, Buttolf and John Dybevik; and five
sisters: Nora Rimrodt, Dorothea Niemeyer, Carrie Thompson, Anna Erickson and an
infant sister, Nora Josephine.
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