CHRISTENSON, Julia

The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona Sunday, January 19, 2003 Julia Hallen Christenson, 92, passed on peacefully January 13, 2003 in a Minnesota rest home. She was born the second of ten children of Norwegian immigrant parents in Hettinger, N.D. on February 1, 1910. She is survived by sons Marshall of Peoria, Az. and Wesley of Minneapolis, Mn.; a sister, Gladys (Jack) Rosenthal of Mesa, Az. and a brother, Gordon (Della) Hallen of Laurel, Mt. A daughter, Joan Christenson, preceded her in death in 1988. Julia obtained a teaching certificate from Dickinson Teachers College in the 30's and taught primary grade students (including her youngest brother) in one-room school houses in Chandler, Maine and Taylor Butte townships in north-central Adams County, N.D. After stints at Darling Springs and Haynes Public School (where she taught her own three children), she attended the University of North Dakota and graduated with a BA in Education in 1969. She then relocated to warmer climates and taught at Joseph Zito Elementary in Phoenix, Arizona until her retirement in 1976. Services will be private at the family homestead in North Dakota. Courtesy of Pat Wilson.