- Date Of Birth: August 30, 1930
- Date Of Death: December 14, 2020
- State: Minnesota
Verna Oseth, age 90, of Wasilla, AK, formerly of rural Oslo, MN, died on Monday, December 14, 2020 at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer, AK.
Verna Mae Chester was born on August 30, 1930, in Bowesmont, ND, to Stanley and Ethel (Peppard) Chester. Her family moved around northeastern North Dakota, living in Bowesmont, Grafton and Drayton. She graduated from Drayton High School in 1948. Verna attended Carbon College in Price, UT and Valley City Teachers College in Valley City, ND, graduating in 1962. She also studied for one year in graduate school at Moorhead State University in Moorhead, MN. She married Vernon McMartin on December 26, 1952 and they made their home in St. Thomas. On May 19, 1967, Verna married Clayton Oseth and they made their home in rural Oslo (Bigwoods Township). Verna taught in the Special Education Department at South Junior High in Grand Forks and Oslo Public Schools. She was the first special education teacher to have a class in a regular school building in Grand Forks and the second special education teacher in Oslo. In 2007, Verna and Clayton moved to Thief River Falls, MN. Clayton died on July 6, 2010. Verna moved to Wasilla in 2012.
She was a member of Bigwoods Lutheran Church in rural Oslo.
Left to mourn her passing are her children, Kent McMartin of Wasilla, AK; Merilee (Jeff) Watts of Hastings, MN; Michael (LeAnn) Oseth of Maplewood, MN; and Diane (Andrew) Miller of Thief River Falls, MN; grandchildren, Gretchen, Rachel, Emily, Katy, Jenni, Christopher, Ashley and Kayla-Mae; great-grandchildren, Adelaide, Drake, Caden, Athren and Meira; and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Stanley and Ethel; husband Clayton Oseth; son Jerry McMartin; daughter-in-law Beckee McMartin; sisters Helen Lindblad, Donna Rasmussen, Marion Erickson and Betty June Kiley and brother, Harold “Bud” Chester.
