Hiram O. Thostenson

Hiram Thostenson, 92, of Montevideo, passed away on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 at the Chippewa County Montevideo Hospital in Montevideo. Funeral services will be 2:00 PM on Monday, August 27, 2018 at Yellow Medicine Lutheran Church in Hanley Falls. Visitation will be from 4 – 8 PM on Sunday, August 26, 2018 also at the church and will continue one hour prior to the service at the church on Monday. Interment will be in the Yellow Medicine East Cemetery. The Sunset Funeral & Cremation Association is caring for the family. On July 1, 1926, Hiram Thostenson was born on a family farm near Hanley Falls, Minnesota. He was the fifth of Ole and Anna Thostenson’s six children. The first years of his formal education were in a one-room country schoolhouse in Wood Lake Township, but he finished high school in Hanley Falls in 1943. At age 16, having just graduated, Hiram enlisted in the US Navy, learned Morse code, and served as a radioman in the South Pacific during the last years of World War II. After his honorable discharge, Hiram briefly attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he met and courted his wife, Gladys Lorraine Nelson, of Appleton, Minnesota, who was a nurse at Abbot-Northwestern Hospital. They were married on January 27, 1951, and settled on the farm where Hiram was raised. Hiram and Gladys enjoyed a happy and close partnership during their 67 years of marriage as they farmed and raised their four children, Mark, June, Carol, and Jon, ensuring they were all brought up in the Christian faith, and all were given a college education. Born to the life of a farmer, Hiram worked hard on his father’s land as a young boy, and continued working in the same fashion as an adult. He and Gladys moved to Montevideo in their retirement years, but Hiram still remained involved with the family business as his two sons began their own farming careers. Additionally, Hiram kept ties with the military as an active member of the American Legion for over 70 years. An insatiable reader, he consumed military histories and Western novels. Anyone who knew Hiram would say he had a quick mind and a sharp sense of humor. He and Gladys frequently spent their holidays visiting their children, who lived in far-flung states such as California, Washington, and Texas. Hiram passed away on August 21, 2018, in the Chippewa County – Montevideo Hospital after a lengthy, valiant battle with heart disease. He will be remembered not only for his roles as a loving husband, father, and grandfather, but also as a loyal and devoted son, brother, uncle, and friend. He was preceded in death by his parents, all five of his siblings, a daughter-in-law, Cathy Duhme Thostenson, and a son-in-law, Richard Peteroli. He is survived by his wife, Gladys, of Montevideo, Minnesota, his son Mark, of Wood Lake, Minnesota, his daughter June Peteroli of Oak Harbor, Washington, his daughter Carol (and husband Guadalupe) Martin of Quemado, Texas, his son Jon (and wife Terri) of Hanley Falls, Minnesota, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Blessed be his memory.