Mignon Rasmussen

Mignon Rasmussen was born April 29, 1928, at her home in Scranton to Wesley Van Horn and Zoa Tressa McCollum.  She passed away on Feb. 13 at the Long Term Care at Greene County Medical Center.

Mignon lived in various places throughout her young life, including Scranton, Jefferson, California and Oregon.

Mignon’s parents were divorced when she was young and she, her mother and her brother had to move frequently. Life was very hard for her family but Mignon remembers always feeling loved by her mother and siblings. Her mother worked at the shipyards on the West Coast and took in sewing to help care financially for her family, as well as sewing all of Mignon’s clothes.

When Mignon was 17, she moved back to Jefferson and worked at Louie’s soda and candy shop on the west side of the Square. It was there she met Norman (Stub) Rasmussen, who she always said was a young, handsome, brown-eyed boy who she fell madly in love with. They courted for a short while and eloped to Kansas to marry on July 21, 1946.

The love lasted for 58 years when Norman passed away on Dec. 22, 2004. She never truly ever got over missing him.

Mignon and Norman began their married life on a farm north of Paton, where they farmed and milked cows. She reported they were so poor they had to sit on milk cans for kitchen chairs and in the winter the flooring would rise up from the cold winds coming in through the windows. Mignon would not let those early hard times determine who she was and always believed anyone could rise above their particular situation, as she did.

Their firstborn son, Keith, was born when they lived on the Paton farm. Five years later, the family moved to their present farm, where daughter Carla and youngest son Kevin joined them.

Norman and Mignon worked hard on the farm all their lives with Mignon’s joy and main focus being a homemaker and taking care of her family, often going without so her children didn’t have to. The love for her family was never in doubt and what made her the happiest was spending time with her family.

Mignon loved to bake and cook and often made room for one more at the table as Norman would invite workmen in to join them for a meal or a dessert. Her specialty was homemade angel food cake, which her children were the recipient of — especially on their birthdays and other celebrations. 

She had many friends and belonged to several clubs where they would play cards and/or meet for coffee. Mignon’s faith was important in her life and she tried to be in church every Sunday. She served as an elder and a deacon at the First Presbyterian Church in Jefferson, as well as teaching Sunday school and serving on the kitchen committee helping fix funeral dinners and cleaning the kitchen for many years.  

Mignon worked as a Pink Lady at the hospital auxiliary for 26 years. She loved to watch sunrises and sunsets, read, garden, shop, eat chocolate and played cards into her 90s. One of her favorite ways to spend time was with the entire family playing “Up and Down the River,” laughing and talking and just being together.

Mignon was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; and her brothers: Keith Van Horn and John Van Horn; and sisters: Catherine Oeffner and Mary Ellen Blaine. 

She is survived by her sons: Keith Rasmussen, of West Des Moines, and Kevin (Jill) Rasmussen, of Jefferson; daughter Carla (Steve) Haupert, of Jefferson; grandchildren: Krista (Brian) Kinkennon, of Ogden; Shane (Gray Morell) Rasmussen, of Los Angeles; Nathan (Shelly) Haupert, of Lytton; Bret (Stephanie) Haupert, of Pella; Jacob (Torrie Ferrari) Rasmussen, of Jefferson; Tressa (Bryce Snedden) Rasmussen, of Ogden; great-grandchildren: Dillon (Jil Dietz) Olsen, of West Des Moines; ReBecca (Zachary Stoos) Olsen, of Ankeny; Onna and Jossa Haupert, of Lytton; Addison and Adam Haupert, of Pella; great-great-grandchildren: Chesley and Lane Stoos, of Ankeny, and Elika Dietz, of West Des Moines; sister-in-law Helen Rasmussen, of Omaha; brother-in-law Richard Rasmussen, of Lone Rock, Wis.; many nieces and nephews; other family members and friends.

Per Mignon’s request, a private funeral service at First Presbyterian Church in Jefferson will be attended by her children and grandchildren, only, with words of comfort by Commissioned Pastor Wendy Pittman.

Honorary bearers will be her great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. 

Casket bearers will be Nathan Haupert, Bret Haupert, Krista Kinkennon, Jacob Rasmussen, Tressa Rasmussen and Shane Rasmussen.

Interment will be in the Jefferson Cemetery.

Services were arranged by the  Slininger-Schroeder Funeral Home.