Orpha Refvem, Boyum, 94 of Adams, Minn., passed away July 19, 2011.

Orpha was born in Frankfort, S.D., on Jan. 22, 1917, to Albert Refvem and Bertha Bindenagel Refvem. Orpha lost her father to scarlet fever when she was 7-years-old. Her mother raised five children alone through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.

Orpha graduated from Frankfort High School and Mankato Business College and came to work in Adams for the Farmers State Bank. She married Arthur Boyum in October 1941, just weeks before Pearl Harbor. Orpha followed Art to his Army base in Texas and worked in the U.S.O. until Art was sent overseas. She then joined her sister and mother in Lebanon, Ind., where her first son David was born in 1944.

After the war, she was a homemaker in Adams. Her son Richard was born in 1947 and Dennis was born in 1950. She became the secretary at the Adams Public Schools and worked there until her retirement.

Art and Orpha loved to golf and were founding members of the Cedar River Country Club. In retirement they wintered in Texas, California and Florida. In 1997, they moved to Rochester to live in the Gramercy Senior Living, but Art passed away just a month before their 56th wedding anniversary. Orpha stayed in Rochester but later moved to assisted living in Eagan, Minn. Orpha returned home to Adams to live at the Adams Health Care Center in August 2010.

Orpha loved her family. She crocheted afghans for each child and grandchild. She traveled to Europe and around the United States. She was a longtime devoted member of Little Cedar Lutheran Church. She and her friends devoted countless hours to the hard work of the church. She read the newspaper while enjoying a cup of coffee every morning of her adult life.

She is survived by her son, David and wife, Ann of Mendota Heights and their three children and six grandchildren; sons, Richard of Chicago, Dennis of Mary Esther, Fla. and his two children and two grandchildren. She is also survived by her sisters-in-law, Madeline in Washington, Joyce in Lake City, and Sallie in Winona.

Orpha was preceded in death by her husband, Art; mother and father; beloved sister, Bernice and her brothers, Loren, Burton, and Harlan.

Funeral services were 1 p.m. Friday July 22, 2011, at the Little Cedar Lutheran Church with the Rev. Dr. Marggi Pleiss-Sippola officiating. Interment was at the Little Cedar Lutheran Cemetery. The Adams Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.