CLARA O. DRAMSTAD

CLARA DRAMSTAD Clara Dramstad, 93, of Cooperstown, ND, passed away March 21, 2011 at the Griggs County Care Center in Cooperstown, ND. Funeral services will be held at Mabel Lutheran Church of Sutton, ND, at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 24. Family services will precede the funeral at 1:00 at the church. Clara Dramstad was born to Syver and Johanna (Flaten) Bakke on June 16, 1917 at Union, ND. She was the youngest of ten children, and was raised on a farm in that area. She attended grade school in Union and graduated from Edinburg High School in 1936. She attended the Lutheran Bible Institute for a year following high school. In 1941 she traveled with her brother Sig’s family out to the west coast where he had secured a job at Lockheed for the winter. There in Los Angeles, through mutual acquaintances, she met another young North Dakotan, Bjarne Dramstad of Sutton, who had also gone west looking for work that winter. However, they and everyone else in the country, were stunned by the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Bjarne returned to North Dakota to enlist. They kept in touch, and were married on September 4, 1942 in Austin, Texas when Bjarne finished his basic training. After he was shipped overseas to Europe, Clara returned to Los Angeles and worked in the Lockheed plant, working on the Constellation aircraft. After the war, Bjarne and Clara returned to the Sutton area to farm for the next forty years or so, raising four children. Clara, from childhood, was very musical, and learned to play by ear and then by notes. She was very active in her church, and spent 25 years as the church organist at Mabel Lutheran Church. For 23 years she and Bjarne spent winters in Palmetto, Florida, where again she was the pianist for their church services and for their community choir. In 1998, they bought a house in Cooperstown and ceased their winter travels. She continued to help with music at the nursing home up until the last year. She always felt that her music was a God-given gift that she could share with those around her. She is survived by her four children: James (Terry) Dramstad, Carol Dramstad Johnson, and Loren (Barbara) Dramstad, all of the Cooperstown area, and Marian (Brach) Johnson of Bismarck. She is also survived by nine grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband Bjarne in 2009, her parents, and all nine of her brothers and sisters.