Elaine Besser

ECHO — Services for Elaine Edith (Wegner) Besser, formerly of Echo, will be at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 5597 130th Ave, Wood Lake, MN 56297 (Posen Township), with visitation beginning at 10 a.m., and a lunch/reception following the service. Elaine’s remains will be buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery with her husband, Daniel Besser, at a later date.

She died Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, in Riverview, Florida.

“Whatever you do, do well.” Elaine Edith (Wegner) Besser often admonished her children with that simple saying, and she lived her life and died in the same manner. God surrounded her with his Holy Spirit and she held a strong faith in Christ Jesus

Elaine was born Jan. 8, 1929, in Faribault to William Carl Wegner and Selma Alma Marie (Zielske) Wegner. She was baptized and confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church in Faribault, and also attended the Trinity Lutheran School (grades 1-8). She graduated from Faribault Public High School on May 31, 1946. She then attended Winona State Teachers College (now Winona State University), where she met her husband, Daniel Alvin Besser. They were married on Aug. 18, 1948, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Faribault. They graduated college in the spring of 1950 and began their adventure together teaching first at Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Fort Yates, N.D. (1950-51) and then Barton, N.D. (1951-52). They moved to Frost, Minnesota, where Elaine began raising four sons and, likely under the impression that she had sufficiently schooled them in “doing things well,” she returned to teach math at Frost Public High School (1965-70); and, then, the Echo Public High School and later the Echo-Wood Lake Cooperative High School until her retirement in 1989. Along the way she also taught some Spanish and some English courses.

She and Daniel moved to Sun City Center, Fla., in 1994 to enjoy winter-free retirement years, where she sang in the Sun City Center Women’s Chorus and the Concert Chorus of Sun City Center. She was a member of Christ the King Lutheran Church, Riverview, Fla.

Elaine was preceded in death by her mother, Selma Wegner, who died on Sept. 7, 1932; her brother, Ensign Vernon Albert Wegner, a naval aviator who died May 23, 1944 (the date of his 23rd birthday) in the crash of a PV-1 Ventura just off the Island of Attu, Alaska; her father, William Wegner who died May 3, 1977, and her husband, Daniel Besser, who died May 7, 2011.

She is survived by her sons: Steven Vernon Besser (spouse Tracey and children Taylor and Alexi); Stanton David Besser (spouse Charlene and step-children Michael, Corey and Matthew, and many step-grandchildren); Mark Daniel Besser (spouse Naomi); and, Matthew Lewis Besser (spouse Karen and child Dayna).

Please do not send flowers. If you would like, please make a donation in Elaine’s name – following are some charitable causes mom would love to be supported;

• Any Christian ministry furthering the cause of Jesus Christ

• Semper Fi Fund https://semperfifund.org

• American Heart Association https://www2.heart.org

• Fisher Center for Alzheimer Research Foundation https://www.alzinfo.org/savetheneurons/donate

With sincere thanks for all of your love and prayers,

The Besser family