Berneice Anne Malstrom

Berneice was born on a farm in Sabin, Minnesota, the first of Lester and Alice Motschenbacher's 12 children. She told her children many stories of her childhood, including; milking cows at age 4 and other barn chores, plowing the field behind a team of four horses at 14, playing softball every Sunday afternoon with her innumerable cousins; being taken to and from school in a sleigh, bundled up in quilts and blankets during Minnesota winters; how she rode in a buckboard to town; and that she drove her Dad's pickup to the store for her mother and the creamery to deliver the milk at age 14 without a driver's license.

She graduated from high school and began her working career at Cass-Clay Creamery as a bookkeeper. Like all young women of her time, she was watching for that special someone. She found him by sitting on his package of cigarettes at a dance. Berneice and Arvon Malstrom, from Fargo, were married in 1948. They were married 64 years before he passed away in 2012. Berneice was a great bread maker (taught by her mother.) The convenience of sliced, packaged bread left her husband fondly looking forward to Thanksgiving when she still made homemade dinner rolls.

Berneice loved sports, especially baseball. She was pretty much a life-time Seattle Mariners fan. She also liked the Yankees---there is just no accounting for taste; and an ardent fan of both Oregon and Oregon State. She herself was a pretty good bowler in her younger days, until a injury to her toe stopped her from that pastime. She went to all her children's sporting events; baseball, basketball, track and field, and wrestling.

As a Mom to three, the count of how many times she said "Mind your P's and Q's was mind boggling. There were three children in the Malstrom family; Renee Bachmeier (David), Paul (Jeanna), and Joel. The dream of most moms is to have grandchildren and the three kids provided a total of eight...Kristina and Kyle (Shauna) Bachmeier; Troy (Erica), Tyler (Leslie), Trevor (Jenny) Malstrom and Melissa (Blake Overman); Stacey ( Harry) Dahlgaard and Ali (mother Marsha) Malstrom. Those eight produced five great-grandchildren so far; Nia and Miles Bachmeier; Abby and Chase Malstrom; Lee and Ila Malstrom; Jude Malstrom; and Thea Dahlgaard.

Berneice was preceded in death by her parents, nine of her siblings, and her son Paul. She will be interred at City View Cemetery. A family gathering is planned for April.