Georgianna Martin, 1918-2015

Published 10:19 am Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Funeral services for Georgianna Mae Martin of Albert Lea will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Theodore Catholic Church. Deacon Mike Ellis will officiate. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. Interment will be in St. Theodore Catholic Cemetery.

Georgianna died Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015, at St John’s Lutheran Community in Albert Lea. She was 96.

Georgianna was born May 8, 1918, on a farm in Hugo, a small town just north of St. Paul, the daughter of George and Mary (McGuire) Brisson. She spent her early years working with her brothers and sisters on the family farm. Later the family moved to St. Paul. Georgie was a “tomboy” who enjoyed and excelled at playing a variety of sports including softball, volleyball and bowling. She also loved playing with and training her German shepherd dog, Sport. On several occasions as a teenager, Georgie and Sport participated in the St. Paul Winter Carnival dog sled races and in one year she and Sport won the race and Georgie was crowned “Queen of the Mushers.” After graduating from Mechanic Arts High School in St. Paul she worked for the 3M Company in St. Paul.

In 1945 she married her beloved husband, Henry Martin, an accountant with Rilco Laminated Wood Products Co., a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Co. They bought a home in St. Paul and started a family. In 1961 Henry was transferred to the Weyerhaeuser home office in Tacoma, Washington. In 1963, as a result of another job transfer, the family moved to Albert Lea where Georgianna continued to reside until her death. Although Georgianna had several jobs outside the home during her long life, she always considered that her most important job was as a wife to her husband, Henry, and a caring and devoted mother to her three sons, Greg, Bernie and Guy. She was a member of St Theodore Catholic Church in Albert Lea and enjoyed gardening and canning.

Georgianna is survived by her three loving sons, Gregory, Bernard and Guy; beloved sisters Louise “Lola” Irving, Roxanne “Roxy” Schuna, Patricia “Pat” Beaudin and Elizabeth “Betty” Hinckley; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents George and Mary Brisson; beloved husband, Henry; sisters Vivian Rhode, Hazel Arth and Dorothy Helms; and brothers Marcel “Marty” Brisson and Claude “Brezzy” Brisson.