Public Notices

Wednesday, December 19, 2007 Obituary Notices for the Week of December 19, 2007 Erna Porter Funeral services were held on Tuesday, December 18, 2007, for Erna Emma Porter, 87, at the Lakewood Care Center in Staples with the Rev. Robin Collins presiding. Erna passed away on December 14, at the Lakewood Care Center in Staples, where she had resided for several years. Erna was born on June 8, 1920, in Todd County, north of Clarissa, to Albert and Alma (Maatz) Laatsch. She married Arthur Arnold Porter at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Bartlett Township, on October 24, 1938. After living near Bertha, Staples, Menahga and Long Prairie, in 1949 they moved to Minneapolis. Erna worked as a nurse's aide and then a lab aide at Abbott Hospital in Minneapolis for 18 years, and she and Art returned to the Bertha area in 1969. She then worked as a med aide at Shady Lane Nursing Home, Wadena, for 11 years, retiring soon after Art died in 1980. After living with her son near Bertha for several years, she moved to Comfort Care, Wadena and then in 2003 to Lakewood Care Center, Staples. For as long as her eyesight allowed, Erna enjoyed embroidery, blessing her family with treasured keepsakes of embroidered quilts, pillow cases and dish towels. She had also enjoyed gardening and loved cats. Erna was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and a stillborn baby girl. Erna is survived by her son, Albert of rural Bertha; daughter Evelyn (Ed/Pete) Otto of Wadena; granddaughters Sara Otto of Minnetonka, and Lori (Tom) York of Shakopee; grandson Andy Otto of Wadena; and 9-month-old great-granddaughter Lydia York of Shakopee. Burial was at Immanuel Cemetery, Bartlett Twp.