Orris K. Asleson

Orris K. Asleson, age 91, died Thursday, April 21, 2005, in the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Fargo.Orris Kenneth Asleson was born to Ole Julius and Ingeborg Belle Broten Asleson on February 24, 1914. Orris attended Ulen public schools, and was baptized and confirmed at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, in Ulen, MN.In 1938, Orris began working for the Great Northern Railroad in Fargo, retiring in 1976 after 38 years. He was a member of the International Order of Railroad Machinists. He married Dorothy Lucille Livdahl of Ulen, in Crookston, MN, on April 19, 1942. They lived in Fargo until moving to their north Moorhead home in 1954. Dorothy passed away on June 11, 1978.Orris entered the U. S. Army in 1942, completing his basic training in Camp Claibourne in Louisiana. He was assigned to Company B of the 330th Battalion of Combat Engineers in 1942, to construct defense facilities at Churchill, Manitoba, on Hudson Bay. That same year he was sent across the equator to India in his winter uniform as a Corporal Technician to construct the Ledo Road in Burma, connecting the Indian and Chinese Theatres. He returned to Colorado Springs, CO in 1945, suffering from recurring bouts of malaria. During his time in Colorado he served as a military policeman in a German POW camp there until being discharged from the Army, in 1946.Orris was a local baseball legend for three decades, playing for the Ulen Arrows and Hawley Hawks until the mid-1950's. He was an avid hunter, and also enjoyed visiting his children out West.Orris is survived by his three children, Kenneth Judy of Monarch, MT, David Teresa of Clancy, MT, and Linda of Spokane, WA; one brother, Osborne, of Rosewood on Broadway, in Fargo; four grandchildren, Cindy of Bishop, CA, Evan and Kerri, both of Great Falls, MT, and Randi of Spokane, WA; two nephews, Mike and Darin Livdahl of Fargo; and one niece, Mary Knopfler of Ulen. He was preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy; his parents; one brother, Noel; and one sister, Rosella.Pallbearers include Mike and Darin Livdahl of Fargo; Art Anderson of Moorhead; Oliver Mathison of Fargo; Robert Asleson of Rollag; and Barry Berg of Moorhead. Honorary pallbearers include Cheryl Cassman of Fargo; Beth Rehder of Moorhead; Elaine Jensen of Moorhead; Kenneth Lee of Moorhead; Lee Davis of Medina, ND; his other caregivers at Rosewood on Broadway; and the Veteran's Hospital in Fargo.In lieu of flowers memorials preferred to Meals On Wheels and the Vikings Sword Museum in Ulen, MN. A luncheon will follow the interment service at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Ulen, MN.