Eleanor Severa Steen

ELEANOR SEVERA STEEN

Moose Lake, Minn.

Eleanor Severa Steen (Dec. 30, 1932 to June 13, 2018) died in Moose Lake, Minn.

Born to Lumir and Margaret (Deacon) Severa, Eleanor was a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and graduated from Franklin High School in 1950. She attended Colorado College for two years, then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where she obtained her degree in occupational therapy in 1954. After residences in Norwich, Conn., Mount Morris, N.Y., and Manchester, England, she began her career at the Mayo Clinic (St. Mary's Hospital) in Rochester, Minn. In 1957, Eleanor moved to Moose Lake to launch the occupational therapy program at the Moose Lake State Hospital. During her career, she also worked as an occupational therapist for the Moose Lake Public School.

In Moose Lake, she met and married Warren D. Steen (Nov. 25, 1961), and they resided on Sand Lake, where they raised their family.

Eleanor had been an active member of Hope Lutheran Church in Moose Lake, serving as the congregational president in the 1980s and singing in the choir for decades. She played the oboe in the Moose Lake Community Band and sang in Autumn Voices, a community choir. Other favorite activities included spending time with her grandchildren, traveling, canoeing, weaving, reading, history, bowling, bridge and watching Twins baseball. She was a founding donor of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids.

She was preceded in death by her husband and her parents.

Her survivors include her four children and their families: Duane, wife Michelle, Ella and Max; Kathryn; Carla, husband Jeff Friedl, and Lucy; and Peter, wife Billie Jo, Emma, Benjamin and Joey. She also is survived by her sister, Jean Heath, and brother, William Severa, both of Cedar Rapids; and many nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be made to Hope Lutheran Church Choir, the Moose Lake Area Historical Society or the American Cancer Society.

Services were held on Saturday, June 16, at 2 p.m. in Hope Lutheran Church, Moose Lake, Minn. Burial was in Sunset Memorial Cemetery, Moose Lake, Minn. To sign the guestbook online, go to www.hhkfuneralhome.com.

Arrangements by Hamlin-Hansen-Kosloski Funeral Home, Moose Lake, Minn.