LaVon M. Skoog

LaVon Maxine Skoog, age 95 passed away peacefully on 8 June 2020.

LaVon was born on 14 August 1924 to Floyd and Leora Olson in Milford, Iowa. The family moved to Brainerd in 1937, settling on a farm in the South Long Lake area, Long Lake Township. She graduated from Washington High School in 1941 and married Clinton L. Skoog on 10 November 1945. They were married for 58 years until Clinton’s death in 2004. She is survived by her two children, Gregory (Nancy) Skoog of Brainerd, and Cynthia (Dennis) Farnsworth of North Prairie, WI; Six grandchildren, Michael Farnsworth, Lynae (Jeffrey) Young, Melanie (Matthew) Patton, Jeffrey (Deborah) Farnsworth, Kristen (William) Spielman, and Gary Skoog; 6 great-grandchildren; sister, Ardeth Busbey of Palmer, Alaska; and sister-in-law, Patsy Olson of Brainerd, Minnesota; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded by her parents, her husband; and her brother, Gary Olson. A funeral service for LaVon will be held at 11:00 am on Monday,June 15, 2020 at the Halvorson Taylor Life Events Center, 512 S. 8th Street in Brainerd with visitation one hour prior to the service. Interment Hillside Cemetery in Long Lake Township.

After Clinton was drafted in 1943, LaVon went to Detroit, MI and got a job at the Ford River Rouge Plant, Dearborn, MI, where she worked on B24 airplanes. She was one of the famous “Rosie the Riveters” in WWII. She had to return home in 1944 to nurse her mother through surgery, and after that, she went to work at the Minneapolis Honeywell, where she cleaned prisms for tank periscopes – which was ‘boring work’, she said. After marriage, Clinton re-enlisted in the Army and she operated on the theory of “Whither Thou Goest, I Will Go”, and followed him to Colorado Springs, CO, Chicago, IL, Gary, IN, Baltimore, MD, one year on Okinawa, six years in Japan, and Pontiac, MI. She loved it all. While in Japan, she served as President of the Officers’ Wives Club, and volunteered as pianist for two Children’s Choirs at the Post chapel. She took art classes and blessed others with her paintings. After Clinton’s retirement from the Army, they returned to Brainerd, in the South Long Lake area. She volunteered as organist at the Bethany Good Samaritan Village worship services beginning in May 1979 for about 20 years. She had joined the South Long Lake Presbyterian Church in 1939, and after returning to the area was their organist for 15 years doing their Annual Reports and Sunday bulletins until she had a stroke in 1995. She served on two committees for The Christian Women’s Association. She loved bowling, games, and cards, but said she was mainly occupied being a wife and mother – in that order. So when she said to her husband “if she would have worked at an outside job, maybe they would have had more”, he warmed her heart with the words “No, you were right where I wanted you.” They were a devoted couple. They transferred their church membership in 1996 to First Presbyterian in Brainerd. They traveled all over the US, including Alaska and Canada enjoying God’s great creations and each other’s company. In July 2005, she joined the Lakes Area Senior Citizens Group and started playing bridge again after many years. LaVon delivered noon Meals On Wheels for the shut-ins until 2014 and played the organ again for worship services at the Bethany Good Samaritan Village until 2016. LaVon loved a good joke and a good laugh and said that was the secret to her long life.

LaVon always said she did not believe in spending money on dead people and would rather have memorials than flowers. Her suggestions are Camp Jim or Bethany Good Samaritan. The family would like to thank the wonderful staff at Bethany Good Samaritan for their tender loving care for LaVon for the past five months. Their dedication and thoughtfulness goes unmatched. Caring for LaVon and her family, Halvorson Taylor Funeral Home, Brainerd.