Everett Charles Hansen, 82
Published 8:13 am Thursday, November 9, 2017
Everett Charles Hansen, 82, of Austin, Minnesota, died Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017, at Mayo Clinic Hospitals – Methodist Campus in Rochester, Minnesota, after a year-long battle with leukemia.
Everett Charles Hansen, 82
Everett was born May 8, 1935, to Albert and Lorna (Miller) Hansen of rural Austin. Growing up in a farm family during the Great Depression, Everett gained very conservative values and learned to get by with what he had. He started his own farming ventures as a teenager and set his life ambition on agriculture. He graduated from Austin High School in the class of 1953, but always said his degree came from the school of hard knocks.
Everett met Mary Ann Lightly at a church hayride and the two were married on Sept. 17, 1955, at First Baptist Church in Austin. Everett built their first home and they started raising a family. They purchased their first farm in Grand Meadow, Minnesota, and moved there in 1961. They continued to farm in both Austin and Grand Meadow for many years. They moved back to Austin in 1967 to a farm near the Hansen homestead, which continues to be the hub of Hansen Farms to this day. Everett particularly enjoyed the harvest, and he operated his combine on the farm up through harvest of 2016.
Along with Everett’s passion for farming, he was very talented in building and remodeling homes. He has worked on countless homes in the area. He also used his talents in this area to serve on several building committees at church. He served for years as a trustee at Grace Baptist Church in Austin.
In his later years, he enjoyed putting together cabinets and wood moldings from scraps and seconds that he gathered from a cabinet shop in the area. His material of choice was cherrywood. He loved pieces of wood with knots and “character.” He stained and finished the wood until it was “Beauty-ful.”
Everett loved to spend time with friends and family over a meal. He loved to tell stories and reminisce about the past. He also loved to joke with people, and he kept his sense of humor to the very end. Everett requested to have a “funeral rehearsal” in September of this year. He said he knew his funeral would be fun and he hated to miss it! He gathered a crowd of 230 friends and family on Sept. 7 to help him celebrate his life and enjoy the bluegrass music he loved.
The family wishes to thank the many dear friends and family who prayed fervently for Everett during his illness. Prayers were answered as he spent two wonderful months at home before his passing.
Everett is survived by his wife of 62 years, Mary Ann (Lightly) Hansen; children, Sherrie (Mark) Decker, Becky (Dana) Fister, Mark (Sherry) Hansen, Julie (Jim) Leonard, and Corey (Kaye) Hansen; grandchildren, Brooke (Jason) Silberhorn, Laurel (Mike) Lingle, Michael (Abby) Hansen, Christopher (Alysha) Hansen, Josiah (Nikki) Leonard, Cole (Kayla) Fister, Joy Anna (Fabio) Volpi, Jennifer Leonard, Victoria Hansen, Gloria Hansen, and Luke Hansen; great-grandchildren, Harley and Ashlyn, Lindie and Mahri, Bethany and Clara, Clark and Caleb, Jeremy, Lydia, Tabitha, Jordan, and Isabelle, Jones and ? (due February 2018) and Kristina and Hannah.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Albert and Lorna; and brothers, Edward and Lawrence.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13, at Grace Baptist Church with the Rev. Mark Decker officiating. Interment will be at Rose Creek Enterprise Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2-5 p.m. Sunday at Clasen-Jordan Mortuary and at the church on Monday one hour before the service.