Joseph A. (Lars) Jereland

MASON CITY – Joseph A. (Lars) Jermeland, 82, of Mason City died Monday (November 12, 2007) at the Muse Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit in Mason City.

Funeral services will be held 1:30 P.M., Thursday at Faith Lutheran Church in Miller with Rose Visser, lay minister officiating. Burial will be in Ellington Township Cemetery near Miller.

Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 P.M., Wednesday at the Cataldo Funeral Chapel in Garner and will continue one hour prior to services at the church.

Joseph Arland Jermeland, the son of Theodore and Lena (Knutson) Jermeland, was born April 10, 1925 at Ossian. He was one of fifteen siblings. Lars was baptized and confirmed at the Stavanger Lutheran Church in Ossian. At the age of 14, he went to visit his sister, Lillian Torkelson and her husband, Joe, at Forest City and ended up staying with them. After Joe passed away in August of 1953, Lars took over the farming operation. He continued farming in the Forest City area for many years. In 1995, he moved to the Meadows Apartments in Clear Lake and in 2003 to Willow Pointe Assisted Living in Mason City.

Lars is survived by a brother, Ted (Elaine) Jermeland of West Union; a sister, LaVonne (Kendall) Benzing of Monona; sisters-in-law, Vi Jermeland of Mason City, Louise Jermeland of Mason City, Arlene Jermeland of Mason City and Margie Jermeland of West Union; a brother-in-law, Don Austin of Manly; twenty nieces; and eighteen nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; six sisters, Lillian Torkelson, Selma Johnson, Merna Walvatne, Leone Mathers, Arthel Jermeland and Arlette Austin; and six brothers, Walter, Arthur, Norman, Jerome, Willard and John Jermeland.