Charlotte Evangeline (Johnson) Erlandson

Erlandson, Charlotte Evangeline (Johnson) Age 93 of Minneapolis. She was a gardener...of vegetables, flowers, children, and souls. Born by midwife on the small farm of her parents, Victor and Ruth Johnson, in rural Elmore, MN, 1928, Charlotte was the fourth of six children, and was known for her strong farmer work ethic and her dreams of becoming a missionary to Africa or China someday. She attended the same 1-room, country schoolhouse as her classmate, Walter Mondale. After graduating at 16, Charlotte left the family farm to attend Luther Junior College, Wahoo, NE, to get her teaching degree. Decades later, she would quietly share how proud she was to have been offered the highest-paying teaching position of any of her classmates. Postponing her teaching career, she attended the former Lutheran Bible Institute, Mpls, where she met a young man, LeRoy Arthur Erlandson, one Saturday morning in the back stairway leading down to the laundry. These two would go on to date for some years, while Charlotte finished her bachelor's degree in education at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL and LeRoy completed seminary there, too. She also held teaching positions in Mead, NE, and Des Moines, IA. They married in 1954. Over the next 25 years, Charlotte would serve as pastor's wife, educator, leader of parish ministries, and spiritual counselor in Lutheran parishes in Minnesota (Kennedy, Lake Park, Fridley), North Dakota (Oberon-Heimdahl), and Texas (Irving). During these decades, she was also well known for waking well before sunrise to tend her massive gardens - growing everything from raspberries (her favorite) to corn, zucchini to gardenias, and chives to marigolds - and steal fleeting reprieve from the demands (and noise) of raising her particular six children, Kent (w. Maria), Daniel (w. Meg), Karla, David (w. Heather), John (w. Amy), and Sven (gf. Karen Camporeale). When most of the children were grown and gone, 1978, Charlotte was hired as Director of Christian Education at Faith Lutheran Church, Forest Lake, MN, responsible for developing an entire 'cradle to grave' education system at this large suburban parish, but specializing in early childhood, while also becoming known for counseling and bringing wisdom to parents in young families. After serving for four years, she was offered a similar position at Nativity Lutheran Church, St. Anthony, MN, where her reputation as an educator, thinker, developer of policy and programming, and wise old woman in the field of early childhood education grew exponentially. During her years there, she wrote articles on early childhood spiritual development and education for publication in Word and World, the Parish Teacher, and the Metro Lutheran. For several years, she served as adjunct faculty in this field at Luther-Northwestern Seminary, St. Paul, where her wisdom and creativity were revered, and she was routinely plucked to counsel the wives of women going into the parish as spouses of pastors. A quiet champion of women's rights, particularly in the Christian Church, Charlotte was often asked by these young women, "I'm so scared to be a pastor's wife, Charlotte. What should I do," Charlotte was legendary for responding, "Just love 'em." Charlotte also served on the transition teams of the merger of two denominations into what would become the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), as well as the ELCA's later sexuality studies, in the 2000s. After retiring, she and LeRoy moved to Becket-wood Cooperative, Minneapolis, where Charlotte was director of the communal gardens, continued to counsel women in the community and the church, and wrote her memoirs and insights on children, which, at 91, having read an inspiring book on goal-setting, she was planning to turn into both a book and podcast. On November 30, 2021, sunrise came one more time and Charlotte Evangeline quietly departed the gardens of her Lord -- dirt under her nails, rose in her cheeks, and a faint, contented grin that comes only from a good day...and life... of hard work. Passing of natural causes, she was surrounded by her now-quieted children and their loving spouses, and contacted in her final weeks by each of her adoring ten grand-children: Alex, Colbjorn, Erik, Christopher, Svea, Kiley, Lucas, Lief, Shae, and Grace. She is survived by her sister, June Seestrom; all of her children and grandchildren and preceded in death by her husband, Rev. LeRoy A. Erlandson, of Alzheimer's at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, as well as her parents and her siblings: Rev. Robert V. Johnson, Rev. John Johnson, Vivian Steinbach, and Milton Johnson. Joint funeral service for Charlotte and Rev. LeRoy will be held on Saturday, April 9, 2022, at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church on Chicago Ave, Minneapolis, MN.

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Charlotte Evangeline (Johnson) Erlandson

November 30, 2021

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