Funeral services for Hazel G. Nelsen, age 76, of Albert Lea, will be held at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Myrtle, on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 1:30 p.m. The Rev. Dan Baker will officiate. Interment will follow at Greenwood Cemetery, Glenville. Visitation will be held on Monday, Aug. 12,

from 5-7 p.m. at the Bayview/Freeborn Funeral Home in Albert Lea.

Hazel died on Friday, Aug. 9, 2002, at St. John’s Lutheran Home in Albert Lea.

Hazel G. Nelsen was born on Feb. 16, 1926, the fifth of seven children, to Cleve and Freida (Fleischer) Bush, in Nashua, Iowa. The family moved to Myrtle when Hazel was in the eighth grade and she graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1944. She married Robert (“Bud&uot;) E. Nelsen on May 11, 1945, at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa. Hazel and Bud farmed in various areas in Minnesota and Iowa until 1961 when they moved to Albert Lea. Hazel was a mother and homemaker until all five children were in school and then started working part-time at Woolworth’s. She later clerked at Coast-to-Coast in Albert Lea for several years.

Hazel has been a very active member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Myrtle for over 63 years, teaching Sunday School, leading women’s groups, and the altar guild. Hazel could often be found at her church making quilts, layettes or banners, boxing clothing to be sent overseas, making soap, cleaning the church, or organizing a work group for kitchen duty. She and Bud also took on the janitorial services for several years at the church.

Hazel will be remembered for her generous hospitality because she loved to open up her home and prepare meals for visitors, her dining table always had room for one more. Friends, relatives, friends of Hazel’s children, and numerous exchange students found welcome in the Nelsen home.

Survivors include her husband, “Bud”; five children: Judy and her husband Bill Raatz of Albert Lea, Gene and his wife Linda Nelsen of Albert Lea, Mary Anne and her husband Karl Rollar of Chanhassen, Minn., Brian and his wife Denise Nelsen of Rock Valley, Iowa, and Scott Nelsen of Myrtle; 10 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; brother, Cleve Bush of Albert Lea; sister, Evelyn and her husband Lloyd Bork of Albert Lea; sisters-in-law: Fern (Nelsen) Rockwell of Albert Lea, and Alice Bush of Austin; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Hazel was preceded in death by her parents; brother and sister-in-law, Earl and Lydia Bush; her brother, Chester (“Bud”) Bush; brother, Fernly Bush; sister, Kathryn Bush; brother-in-law, Howard Nelsen; and sister-in-law, Marion (Nelsen) Ott.

Memorials are preferred to the Bethlehem Lutheran Church Altar Guild.