Alice Margaret Bakken was born January 4, 1918, in McGregor, ND to Elmer and Inga (Sand) Bakken. At the age of two the family moved back to the Bristol area where their family resided. She was baptized in North Dakota, confirmed and became a long-time member at Bergen Lutheran Church, near Bristol. She went to country grade school and graduated from Bristol High School. She married Oscar Simonson on June 11, 1938. They made their home and farmed in the Bristol area for forty years. After they sold the farm in 1978, they moved to Webster, SD. At that time, they became members of St. John’s Lutheran Church. Alice kept very detailed farm records for their entire career. These records are now at South Dakota State University. She was a prolific record keeper of many things, including diaries, how many hours she spent stitching a quilt, how much rain came down, Bob’s and Linda’s school papers, and financial records until she could no longer see well enough to do so. She was a great cook and baker. She sewed most of Bob’s and Linda’s clothes as they grew up and later made many fabulous quilts. After Oscar passed away in 2014, Alice moved to Heritage Village and then chose to move to Bethesda Nursing Home in 2022 where she was content and grateful for the workers who cared for her. Alice was welcomed into God’s hands on June 15, 2026.
Alice is survived by her children Linda (Richard) House of Edina, MN; Robert “Bob” (Carol) Simonson of Sioux Falls; one granddaughter Amy (Mark) White of Middleton WI; one great - granddaughter Allison House and her mother Sarah of Hopkins, MN; her sister Betty Lou Rohde of Rochester, MN; her special nephews Paul (Susan) Rohde and Bruce (Nancy) Rohde and several nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. She is also survived by a friend of the family Bev Carr of Webster, who visited nearly every day and showed her love to all the family. Alice is preceded in death by her husband, Oscar; grandson, Eric House; her parents, two brothers and an infant son.
God bless the memory of this wife, mother, grandmother, greatgrand mother, sister, aunt, cousin and friend.