Ruth Marie Kelsen (Rosengren)

On Thursday July 24 Ruth Marie Kelsen (Rosengren) of Pueblo, Colorado took her last breath in this life and her first in the presence of the Lord. Ruth was born December 23, 1936 in Bailey’s Harbor, Wisc. to Ernst and Mary Rosengren. She was the younger sister to Esther Rosengren (Gunnerson) who with her children and husband operated the giftshop on Washington Island for many years.

Ruth was a typical healthy, well-educated, overachieving Door County kid. She later moved to Gurnee Illinois where she graduated from Warren Township High School and then attended Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. She attended Physical Therapy School at the University of Iowa, then married David Kelsen, had two amazing sons, Bryan and Joel Kelsen, and worked as a physical therapist in Waterloo, Iowa. After a divorce she continued to work and raise her children as a single parent. Ruth worked in Waterloo, Urbandale, Iowa, and later in several facilities in Door County such as the Dorchester Nursing Home after returning to the peninsula. She retired from physical therapy, then went to school to become a massage therapist and ran a small business from her home.

After a fall in her Sturgeon Bay home which resulted in a fractured vertebrae in her neck Ruth moved to the Bonaventure assisted living facility in Pueblo, Colorado close to her eldest son. At the age of 82 she joined Jesus in his death, burial and resurrection through baptism at Christ Church Pueblo West.

Ruth enjoyed knitting, baking, playing the piano and her Door County current events group. She had a smile that could light up an entire room and was part of the first generation in her Swedish family to be born in the U.S. She loved her friends, family, Al Johnson’s, Chick-Fil-A and the Packers.

She will be missed by all who knew and loved her but this isn’t “goodbye”, it is, “See you

soon Ruth”.

Inurnment, Little Sister Cemetery, 11161 Old Stage Road, Sister Bay, WI 54234

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