Margret Kragnes

Margret Thordarson Kragnes passed away peacefully at Eventide on Eighth in Moorhead, MN on February 18, 2019 at the age of 96.  She was born August 23, 1922 in Point Roberts, Washington to Icelandic parents and had to tell people how to spell her name the Icelandic way the rest of her life. Her surroundings in Point Roberts gave her a life-long love of flowers, mountains, the ocean, and beautiful sunsets.  She began helping out in the family store at age 7, but continued her schooling.   She graduated from high school in Bellingham, Washington and later studied accounting at Peterson’s Business College in Seattle.  She worked several different jobs in Seattle during and after the war years, and met Russell Kragnes at a dance in Seattle in 1948.  After deciding they “were just meant for each other” they married in Seattle later that year and moved to the Red River Valley to farm with Russell’s parents.

While raising their four children and farming, both Margret and Russell showed a strong commitment to community service.  Margret taught Sunday school for 11 years, was a Band Parents Group member, a four-time prom committee member, a 4-H leader, and a treasurer of the Moorhead Conference of  Lutheran Church Women.  She was always active in Concordia Church Women and held almost every office, some more than once.  She closed the books on being historian in 2010, her last official office held.

She and Russell loved to travel and eventually visited all 50 states; went to Australia and New Zealand; and took a cruise through the Panama Canal.  She finally got to Iceland with her daughter and son-in-law in 2005. When asked if it was hard to have an empty nest when their youngest went to college she said, “I cried for two weeks.  Then I took a pottery class.” She kept learning and welcoming new adventures all her life, and at the time of her death had just begun re-reading “Gone With the Wind,” a novel  that had so captured her fancy when it first came out that she stayed up all night to read and faked being sick the next day so she could finish it.   Her survivors will miss her quick wit, her sense of humor, her faith in God, her reverence for the earth, and her loving support of family.  Those survivors include her children; Verna (Rick Hall), Moorhead, MN; David (Peggy), Felton, MN; Amy (Gary Krause), Omaha, NE; and JoAnn Jones, Moorhead; eight grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.  She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Russell; her parents, Ben and Runa Thordarson; her brother, Helgi Thordarson; and her sister, Hilda Thordarson Castellano.

A funeral service will be held, in conjunction with the regular church service, on Sunday, February 24, 2019, at 10:00 A.M., with visitation from 9:00 to 10:00 A.M., at Wright Funeral Home, Moorhead. Lunch will be served following the service. Burial will take place in the church cemetery in the spring.

**Due to the forecast of weather-related travel issues on Sunday, the service has been moved to Wright Funeral Home in Moorhead. The service will still be held at 10:00 A.M. with the visitation starting at 9:00 A.M.