Conway Funeral Homes

   Sarah Blomgren died Sunday, April 06, 2008 at the Aase Haugen Retirement Home in Decorah after a short illness. She was 86 years of age.

   Funeral Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 10, 2008 at First Lutheran Church, with burial in the Oak Lawn Cemetery in Cresco, IA.  Visitation will be held from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday at the Conway Funeral Home in Cresco. There will also be visitation one hour prior to services at the church on Thursday. 

   Sarah Elizabeth Offen was born on the Offen family farm in Howard Center Township in Howard County, on September 15, 1921, the daughter of Wilkins E. and Alma (Paul) Offen. She attended the Howard Center # 1 school, the same school that her father and sister attended. She finished her education in the Lime Springs Public School.

   Sarah was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Faith on March 22, 1955 by Rev. Robert Ahrens. On October 8, 1938, she was united in marriage to Harold Blomgren at the First Presbyterian Parsonage in Mason City, Iowa. To this union, two children were born: Eugene Harold and Sharon Marie.

   Sarah and Harold made their home on a farm where Sarah was the homemaker and also a farm wife. Sarah loved raising chickens and she sold hatching eggs to the Decorah Hatchery for several years. She loved to cook, as she had a lot of hired help, after Harold found out he had heart problems at an early age. She also enjoyed sewing, making quilts and doing embroidery work. Most of all, she enjoyed her five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.

   Harold and Sarah started farming in 1955 in Winneshiek County and farmed this farm for 40 years. They then sold the farm and moved into Cresco, where they made their home until Harold’s death and Sarah moved to Decorah.

   Sarah is survived by two children: Eugene Blomgren and his wife Judy of Sauk Centre, MN and Sharon and her husband Wayne Burnikel of Cresco, IA; five grandchildren: James (Brenda) Blomgren, Bryon (Heather) Bronner, Kristine Combs, Leanna (Nick) Halfhill, and Deanna (Kevin Schultz) Henderson; eight great grandchildren: Jennifer Henderson, Laura and Steven Blomgren, Nicole and Miranda Combs, and Jessica, Joshua and Hannah Bronner; and sisters in law: Fern Schmauss of Cresco, IA and Violet Pedersen of Mabel, MN.                   

   She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Harold on May 12, 2000, and one sister Ruth Marshall.