Lorraine Vivian (Parkin) Spading, 91, Kasson
Tue, 04/04/2023 - 1:19pm
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Lorraine Vivian (Parkin) Spading, age 91, of Kasson, Minnesota passed away peacefully on March 19, 2023. She was surrounded by family at a hospice facility in Oakdale, Minnesota.
Lorraine was born on Flag Day, June 14, 1931, on her paternal grandparents farm near Pine Island, MN. She grew up in the vicinity of Pine Island, Douglas and Dodge Center, MN. Lorraine met her future husband, Fred, while they were attending Pine Island High School. After she graduated in 1949 she enrolled in the Junior College in Rochester, MN, where, in 1951, she graduated as a medical secretary. Fred and Lorraine were married at the Methodist Church in Douglas on September 14, 1952. They fondly recalled the double wedding with their best friends Don and Gloria Wegman.
Lorraine worked at the Mayo Clinic after college, St. John’s Lutheran Church for 31 years as the lead secretary, the Kasson-Mantorville School District, and Construction Management Services.
Lorraine loved to bake and was well known in the Dodge and Olmsted County area for her baking and cooking skills. She enjoyed sharing delicious food especially her baked goods. She taught baking in community education classes and won numerous bake goods blue ribbons at the Dodge County Fair. Her scones, donuts and lefse were sought after and enjoyed by many.
She and Fred were members of the United Methodist Church in Kasson. All her life, Lorraine served the Methodist Church where she helped and blessed hundreds of people in Kasson and at the United Methodist Church Dulac Community Center Mission in Dulac, LA. Lorraine never truly retired; she was always active in the church, the community and with family and friends. She was a friendly, loving, sweet community leader in many ways which was exhibited by her serving on the Kasson-Mantorville school board after her children graduated. She was active in starting a food shelf at St. John’s Lutheran Church and served as a board member for the Kasson Alliance for Restoration (KARE) where she tirelessly advocated for reusing the 1918 Kasson Public School. Lorraine provided shelter for people who were temporarily homeless and extended numerous kindnesses and mothering to those in need. She enjoyed traveling, garage sales, flea markets, yard work, playing cards, square dancing, antique cars, visiting with friends, butterflies, crows and smiling.
She is with her loving God now, Fred, her parents and other dearly departed loved ones. She is dearly missed by everyone that knew her. A memorial service for Lorraine will be held sometime in the summer of 2023.
Lorraine is survived by her children Kenton, Keith and Lorrie, six grandchildren, Lesly (Guillermo) Gamez, Johnathan Gamez, Joshua Allen, Kristen Allen, Rachel Allen, and Sofia Maldonado, three great grandchildren, Daniel, Lourdes, and Remedios, and her two younger sisters, Mavis (Richard) Dessner, Gloria Naylor and Gloria’s significant other Kenneth Luty. She will be interred with Fred in the Center Grove Cemetery near Douglas, MN.
CELEBRATION OF LIFE Lorraine Spading passed on March 22, 2023. Please join Lorraine’s family to celebrate her life on Wed. June 14, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. at the United Methodist Church in Kasson. A luncheon in memory of Lorraine and Fred will follow the service.