Norman & Ruth Langseth

Ruth Evangeline Rosenquist was born on March 7, 1916, on her parents farm in Riverton Township, Clay County, MN. She is the youngest of eleven children born to Joseph and Emma Rosenquist.

Norman Clifford Langseth was born on August 11, 1912, on his parents farm in Elkton Township, Clay County, MN. He was the eighth child in a family of eleven children born to Carl Martin and Martina Langseth.

Ruth's older brother, Archie, wrote about the Rosenquist family in 1967.  He told this story about Ruth's childhood days:  "I drove in the yard one day and unhitched the horses. They started for the well to get water and I jumped on one to ride to the well. Ruthie, who was about two years old, came running and wanted a ride. I reached down and was lifting her up when the horse got scared and started running and bucking. Ruth and I had quite a ride for a minute or so, but I finally got the horse to quiet down. Ruthie thought it was fun, but it sure scared me."

Both Norman and Ruth spent their elementary school days in District 102, Elkton Township. She started there in 1922 and moved on to Glyndon High School in 1929, having skipped the second grade. Ruth graduated from Glyndon High as the class valedictorian in 1933.  Norman helped his father with the family farm while getting a start for himself.  They were married in Glyndon at the Lutheran Church on March 15, 1936 and moved to their newly purchased farm home on Section 25 in Glyndon Township, three miles south of Glyndon.  They built a new house there in 1953.

Norman began farming with horses and had a dairy herd. He farmed until 1968. He then held jobs with Northern States Power and Midwest Excavating in Fargo, ND. He retired in 1977. Ruth was the ever-busy farm wife, helping her husband with some of the farm work, raising a large garden, sewing many, many dresses and other clothes for the children, as well as the normal work load of a housewife in those years. Following Norman's retirement, they spent their winter months traveling until they decided to spend the winters in Apache Junction, AZ.  They stayed on their Minnesota farm in the summers.

Extreme weather conditions helped make Norman and Ruth's first year of marriage memorable.  The winter before they were married, the temperature stayed below zero for one month; then, the first summer, for three days in a row, the temperature reached 113 degrees.  On their fifth anniversary Norman and Ruth decided to celebrate by going to Fargo to a movie. They left their three children with a fourteen year old babysitter, Evelyn Fobes, while her mother, Helen Fobes, went with them. They had been at the movie less than a half hour when they heard the ushers making remarks about the weather. This was the night of the tragic March 15th snow storm that, according to the March 18th, 1941 Fargo Forum, took seventy-two lives in the northwest. The Langseths and Helen Fobes started for home and got as far as Dilworth, where they got stuck in a snow bank in the middle of the highway. They spent the night in Dilworth with a kind lady, who took them in. They got home the next day before noon. They found the sitter and the children okay and Norman's brother, Albert, had gotten to the farm and was taking care of the milk cows.

The Langseth's have raised a family of six children: two sons and four daughters. The four oldest reside in Clay County, MN. They are Carol (Gordon) Ekre, Hawley, Keith (Lorraine), Glyndon, Norman Ellery (Eleanor), Lake Park, Shirley (Larry) Swenson, Glyndon. The two youngest were more adventuresome and have resided in several homes. They are Beverly (Allen) Gjersvig, Mesa, AZ, and Laurel (Ron) Gerig, St. Joseph, MI. Norman and Ruth have 18 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.

In 1965, the Langseths became licensed foster parents and, during the nine years they worked with this program, they cared for six different children in their home. They maintained contact with three of these young people.

Norman and Ruth’s faith has been a very important part of their lives.  The family has considered them their "prayer warriors".

Norman Langseth died at his home near Glyndon on Monday, May 24, 2004.  He was 91.

 

Ruth died at Viking Manor nursing home on June 5, 2013.  She was 97.