Arlene Beverly Anderson

Arlene Beverly (Rasmussen) Anderson
August 29, 1929 – April 22, 2023

Arlene was born to Roy and Minnie (Kindler) Rasmussen in La Crosse, Wisconsin, the oldest of seven children. Her growing-up years were on a farm near Clark, South Dakota. To attend the local high school would have meant taking a room in Clark, which was not possible.
She was thrilled in 1947 when she turned 18 to begin a Licensed Practical Nurse training at a hospital in Watertown, S.D. That training was cut short in 1948 when her mother died and she returned home to help care for her four younger siblings. Her love of medicine continued throughout her life. In 1949 Arlene and her oldest brother were in a car accident which injured her and took his life. She ever after suffered with back and hip pain.
She helped her dad with her siblings until she married Given Anderson in 1951. They had four children and were married almost 64 years before Given died in 2015. The family moved to Salem, Oregon, in 1963, sandwiched between the great Columbus Day Storm of October 1962, and the Pacific Northwest Flood at Christmastime, 1964.
Arlene was a homemaker whose door of hospitality was open for drop-in visitors, or overnighters. As children we always loved it when company came. She prepared countless meals and made memories for her family and friends. She was a caregiver most of her life, first for her young siblings, then for her own children and foster children.
She was a people person, always interested to get to know them and to hear or read their stories. For decades she welcomed five-year olds to their Sunday School class at Peoples Church. She got to know not only the children but their families. She herself as a child had not had the privilege of attending church. When she was four or five she got a little sister and was thrilled, she wanted to share her oatmeal with her. She died. Arlene’s Aunt Lily took her up in the grainery and told her God would give her another sister. She’d never heard of “God.” She first heard the Gospel at a Hutterite Vacation Bible School and went forward every time to receive Jesus. Her paternal grandmother sent Christian reading material to her.
When her dad collected her from the hospital after her mother’s death she said everything went black, she didn’t want to eat. She experienced that darkness again after her brother’s death. She sensed the Lord Jesus calling her to come with Him. To go with Him was Light, to refuse was darkness. She chose to go with the Light. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”—John 8:12
Arlene loved spending her last years at Lancaster Village—where there were lots of people.�� Isolation during Covid was especially painful but she survived. In recent weeks she had become weaker and had low oxygen. When she returned from dinner on Saturday, April 22, the caregiver was helping her into her chair when she breathed her last and rose into the presence of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so shall she ever be with the Lord. World Without End. Hallelujah!
Arlene is predeceased by her husband, Given, and their oldest son, Richard. She is survived by children Rhonna (Martin) Bassett, Lanae (Jim) Booker, and Leif (Lori) Anderson, and 10 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Memorial will be at Peoples Church, Saturday, May 13, 2023, 2:00 p.m. Interment was at Willamette National Cemetery. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to Peoples Church Missions.
She loved you all and wanted you to be with her forever in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.