Ruby Bjerke

Ruby E. Bjerke, age 94, of Willmar, died Saturday morning, April 8th, at the Infinia Health Care Center in Willmar.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 A.M. Friday, April 14th, at Vinje Lutheran Church with Rev. Barbara Johnson officiating. The interment will be in the Fairview Cemetery. Friends may call at the church one hour prior to the services. Arrangements are with the Peterson Brothers Funeral Home.
Ruby E. Bjerke was born on March 1, 1912, in South Bend, Indiana, the daughter of Ethel Fay (Seybold) and Claude Azelton. In 1915, Ruby moved with her mother and grandparents to Rhame, North Dakota, and in August of 1916, her mother married John Julius Ekander and Ruby took the Ekander name. Her early years of education were in North Dakota and after her parents moved to South Bend, Indiana, she continued her schooling in Madison, Illinois. They moved to the Willmar in 1928, where Ethel and John had bought the Willmar Hotel. Ruby worked at the hotel and the hotel restaurant. During that time, she waited on several very nice gentleman, that as she put it, "tipped well". Little did she know they were the gentleman that were going to rob the Bank of Willmar. In June of 1933, Ruby moved to Minneapolis and enrolled at the Paul's Hairdressing Academy. She graduated in December of 1933, returned to Willmar and worked at the Agnes Collier Beauty Shop and then for the Peacock Beauty Shops in Atwater, Granite Falls and then back in Willmar. Ruby then bought the Agnes Collier Beauty Shop and renamed it the Modern Beauty Shop. On August 7, 1938 she was married to Albert L. Bjerke and they made their home in Willmar. Ruby sold her shop to raise her children and only worked part time for various shops. Ruby and Albert moved to Minneapolis in 1947 and ran their own beauty and barber shop before returning to Willmar in 1949. Ruby went to work for the Willmar State Hospital in 1952 at their beauty shop and worked there until her retirement in 1977. Ruby was a member of Vinje Lutheran Church since 1940. She enjoyed being with her family and grandchildren and liked spending time crocheting and doing crosswood puzzles.
She is survived by two sons, Allen (and Margie) Bjerke of Minnetonka and Robert Bjerke of Willmar and one daughter, Bonnie (and Wesley) Martinson of Willmar. Also surviving are 7 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren, besides other relatives and friends. Ruby was preceded in death by her parents, husband (Albert in 1972), twin Martinson grandsons and brother (Leland Ekander) in 1982.