Carolgene Dassenko, 81, Ellendale

Published 12:00 am Saturday, November 30, 2002

Funeral services for Carolgene Dassenko, age 81, of Ellendale, will be at 2 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2, at Bayview/Freeborn Funeral Chapel in Albert Lea. The Rev. James Van Arsdale will officiate. Interment will be in Bath Seventh-day Adventist Cemetery. Visitation is one hour prior to the services at the chapel.

Carolgene died Thursday, Nov. 28, 2002, at Albert Lea Good Samaritan Center.

Carolgene Dassenko was born Dec. 24,1920, to Harry A. and Lydia (Kulenkamp) Hobein in St. Louis, Mo. She was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church at the age of 12 by Elder Ernest Branson at the St. Louis Central S.D.A. church. In 1938, after her mother’s death, her father brought her to Oak Park Academy in Nevada, Iowa, to attend school. Carolgene graduated with her class in 1938. It was there that she met her husband to be, Mike Dassenko, and they were married Feb. 17, 1940.

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Both worked at the Iowa Sanitarium and Hospital in Nevada until it burned in 1943. Carolgene was a food service assistant in various schools including Oak Park Academy and Collins Elementary School. In 1992, the couple moved from Collins, Iowa, to Ellendale. Carolgene enjoyed cooking, baking, playing the piano and taking care of her family. She was a faithful member of the Nevada and Albert Lea S.D.A. churches and was assistant pianist for many years.

Survivors include her husband, Mike; daughters: Colleen and husband Dale Loken of Owatonna, Mary and husband Carlos Schwantes of St. Louis, Mo., and Lola Fults and John Shannon of Kansas City, Kan.; son-in-law Clark Williamson of Des Moines, Iowa; grandchildren: Jon Williamson, Dustin Fults, Lindsay Fults, Brian and wife Cheryl Loken, Joan and husband Gary Richards, Jennifer and husband Jeff Therring, Ben Schwantes and Matt Schwantes; seven great-grandchildren; and a host of other relatives and friends.

Carolgene was preceded in death by her parents and her daughter, Sonja Williamson.