Ione Dahl

Ione Mae Dahl, 96, a resident of Fergus Falls, died Thursday, June 11, 2015 at PioneerCare, where she had resided for the past seven years.
She was born on August 4, 1918, the fourth of eleven children of David and Martha (Guelzow) Donley. Born into, what we would consider today, abject poverty, she worked for her room and board to get through high school in Underwood and graduated from Underwood High School in 1936.
While in school in Underwood, she met Forrest N. Dahl. In 1937, they were married in Wahpeton, ND on the 27th of March. They started out their 62 year journey that would lead them into a pretty good, and sometimes a bit stormy, life. Energetic, hopeful, content with risk, and willing to take the initiative, Forrest founded the Dahl Music Company, and Ione and Forrest were residents of Fergus Falls since that time.
In the next dozen years, her family with four children, was complete, the war was over, the “roaring fifties” was in full bloom, she had a home in Fergus Falls, a cabin on Otter Tail Lake, the Dahl Music Company business in downtown, and happy times were here again.
Ione was a homemaker and hostess extraordinaire. There were feasts at Christmas on Summit Avenue and at Otter Tail Lake where her delicious food filled the table and there was always room for one more. Her garden at Otter Tail Lake provided meals and many lessons to the grandchildren, especially about weeds! She ventured into business selling World Books, and each child and grandchild was assured a head start on their education. She belonged to a Homemakers Club, back in the time when a homemaker was as revered as, Doctor or Reverend or the Honorable, with dozens of girls who met regularly and whose chatter, if overheard by a small child, would bring a blush to the face.
Ione was busy and active, enjoying bowling for many years, her Sewing Club of 65 years, and various activities at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The Sewing Club, with many of the same girls, would meet in one of their houses regularly and sew things, like small pillows, made from a fabric with “Home Sweet Home” embroidered on it that would find their way to the corner of sofas all over town. Each year her bowling team would participate in a tournament somewhere around the country and they left an impression that it didn’t matter what the score was and, not surprisingly, had no trouble getting a sponsor.
Grandma Dahl filled our hearts with love, laughter and great stories. Our favorite, and one we all recall, is that as a young girl, she and her sister would gather the cows from the pasture, milk the cows, and then deliver the milk with a horse-drawn wagon to all of the residents and guests staying around Otter Tail Lake, and, she still loved a glass of milk.
Ione was preceded in death by her husband Forrest; her son Victor, and nine of her ten siblings, brothers, Melvin, Clarence and Gerald Donley, and sisters Fern Berry, Ruth Umland, Lois Sherman, Lucille Zahnow, Delores Johnson and Arlyss Jacobson.
She is survived by her brother Duane (Marion) Donley of Richville; a daughter Fonda Lunde of Fargo, ND; two sons, Forrest Jr. of Otter Tail Lake and Ronald (Gail) of Minnetonka; eight grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

Visitation: one hour prior to the service at the funeral home
Memorial Service: 2:30 p.m. Monday, June 15, 2015 at Olson Funeral Home Chapel, Fergus Falls
Clergy: Reverend Tom Peterson
Burial: Bethlehem Cemetery, Fergus Falls
Funeral Home:Olson Funeral Home of Fergus Falls