Delone J. "Dee" Woxland

Delone ("Dee") Woxland, age 100, died at Good Shepherd Lutheran Home in Rushford on February 21. A memorial service will be held at Rushford Lutheran Church on Saturday, March 3 at 11:00 a.m.
Dee was born on a farm near Harmony, Minnesota, on April 30, 1917 to Martin Bjorge and Margit (Harstad) Bjorge. Tragedy struck when she was only sixteen months old; her mother died in a house fire. She and her older sister Captola ("Cappie") were raised mostly by her beloved aunt Marie Bjorge Dahlen and her husband Goodwin. A few years after taking the little girls into their home, Marie and Goodwin had a son of their own, Marlyn, who became, for all purposes, Dee and Cappie's little brother.
Dee graduated from Mabel High School in 1934 as valedictorian when she had just turned seventeen. She had several college scholarship offers but due to a lack of finances - money that her grandmother had set aside was lost in a bank failure during the Depression - she was only able to attend a one-year normal teacher's training program in Preston. She began teaching when she was only slightly older than some of her students and taught at several one-room country schools in the Rushford area. Decades later, after her children had grown, she returned to teaching as a substitute in Rushford and Peterson.
She married Sydney Woxland on August 26, 1939. Aside from a couple years during World War II when he was a soldier in Europe and she worked in Washington at the Pentagon, Syd and Dee were lifelong residents of Rushford. They lived in many houses and apartments until they moved into the ancestral Woxland home in "Brooklyn". There they raised their two children: Tom and Christy. Tom graduated from law school and married Carol Birkland in 1976. Christy became a nurse and married Jeff Tomlinson in 1977; they have two children, Kate and Joshua.
Dee loved to golf, sew, knit/crochet, read, and play bridge. She made many of her family's clothes. Syd had a big garden of vegetables which she cooked, canned, and shared with neighbors. She was friend to many and fostered strong family ties. Her house was always open for afternoon "lunch" of coffee and a sweet; she was well-known for her lemon meringue pies. She made holidays special; every Halloween she would create unique and competition-winning costumes for her children. Her family enjoyed many card games with her in which everyone tried to "get Grammy" and she, nevertheless, almost always won.
She was a wonderful wife to Syd for 62 years. In retirement, they enjoyed many winters in Texas. Dee became a dedicated caregiver when Syd developed Alzheimer's Disease, from which he died in 2002. She was also predeceased by her sister Cappie Golden and "brother" Marlyn Dahlen.
The home they built and shared in Brooklyn was destroyed in the Rushford flood of 2007. But with a positive attitude, she continued to look forward and enjoyed each day in her apartment at Pine Meadows North.
The last year of her life was spent contented, comfortable and well cared for at Good Shepherd Home. She had great appreciation for the loving attentiveness of the staff and, in turn, always greeted everyone with a smile and kind words. In accordance with her wishes, the family requests that any gifts in her memory be made to Good Shepherd.
Hoff Funeral and Cremation Service in Rushford is assisting the family with arrangements.