Katie A. Nelson, 29
Katie Ann Nelson, 29, died suddenly on March 20, 2009 from a newly diagnosed massive primary brain tumor at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester.
Katie Ann was born to Shirley (Smith) and Paul Nelson on Dec. 23, 1979 at Owatonna Hospital. She grew up on her family dairy farm near Bixby, where she helped her family with chores and even milked cows. Katie attended Blooming Prairie High School and graduated in 1998. She hated math and science but loved English, music and theater. Katie played her trumpet for five years for the VFW/American Legion Color Guard. In 2006 she received a bachelor’s degree from Mankato State University in theater and dance and was only half a semester away from completing a degree in massage therapy from RCC this spring. Her primary love and passion was the stage and some of her favorite productions were: Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, Beauty and the Beast, Annie, Honk, and Don’t Hug Me. She worked many jobs but the one she loved the most and worked at the longest was at Belles and Beaus in Austin for Marie, her second mother. Katie always said that she treated each wedding as a production that deserved attention down to the tiniest details. In her free time Katie loved to sing and dance, go to movies and plays and just hanging out with her friends – she had so many friends. Qualities that made Katie so special were her giving ways, sincere listening, forgiveness and acceptance of people. Katie loved her parents and brothers even though she would drive them crazy with her long, frequent showers and using up all the towels.
She was preceded in death by her grandfathers, Amos Smith and  Richard Nelson; grandmother, Marcella Smith and cousin Thomas Jensen.
The family is so grateful for all the love, care and guidance Katie received over the years and also the medical care and love she received the last four days of her life from the nurses and providers at St. Marys Hospital. Katie shared the gifts of herself with everyone she met and even with people she didn’t meet by the donating of her organs through LifeSource at the end. Well done, good servant of the Lord.
Katie is survived by her parents, Paul and Shirley Nelson; brothers, Peter and Michael Nelson;  grandmother, Beulah Nelson; uncles, Edward (Nadine) Smith, David (Patricia) Nelson, Donald (Teryl) Nelson; aunts, Julia (Lowell) Wichmann, Jean, (Francis) Coughlin; 19 first cousins; 15 second cousins and numerous friends and neighbors. 
A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, March 28, 2009, at St. Columbanus Catholic Church in Blooming Prairie with the Reverend William Kulas and Reverend Richard Dernek officiating. Friends may call at Worlein Blooming Prairie Funeral Home from 5 to 8 p.m., Friday, March 27, 2009 and at the church one hour prior to the service on Saturday. There will be a Ladies’ Rosary service at 5 p.m. Interment will be in St. Columbanus Catholic Cemetery.