Jean Pederson

Jean Pederson, 95, of Hatton, ND passed away Monday, July 18, 2022 at Luther Memorial Home in Mayville, ND. Funeral services will be held Saturday, August 6, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. at St. John Lutheran Church in Hatton. A visitation will be held from 12:00 p.m. until the time of the service at the church.

Jean (Bjerke )  Pederson was born to Wihelmina Meldahl  and Melvin  O.  Bjerke on the farmstead one mile east of Hatton, ND  on Feb. 24, 1927. Jean grew up in the Hatton area graduating from Hatton High School with the class of 1945. She continued her education at the University of North Dakota where she was affiliated with Pi Beta Phi and completed her Bachelor’s degree in 1949.

     Jean married Monroe Pederson in 1952 at St. John Lutheran Church in Hatton after which they moved to California where she raised her children, Rachel and Eric, and taught school for 36 years.

Upon retirement she served as a substitute teacher for another 9 years!  Jean was born to teach and she started her career as a parochial school teacher in a rural Hatton school. She went on to teach mostly 5-7^th graders with such diligence that she earned the friendly nickname of “the Warden “from her pupils.

     School started with great excitement for Jean when she attended the kindergarten class for St. John Sunday School. She really enjoyed the fancy red chairs full of friendly boys and girls. Later she was confirmed at St. John Lutheran Church,  then married  at St. John and  recently celebrated the 70^th anniversary of her wedding at this church.

     Jean was an avid reader and an enthusiastic supporter of choral music. She would harmonize with the best of them and assist her husband with those powerful minor chords of his barbershop music.

     Jean Was preceded in death by her parents and her four brothers, Kenneth, Orvis, James and Ronald. She is survived by her older sister Mardelle Naastad-Tollefson and younger sister Dorothy Skjoiten.