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Memorial Service Saturday for Lillian Wickman
TACOMA, WA (November 4, 2004) - A memorial service will be held Saturday,
November 6, for 96-year-old Lillian Wickman, widow of Evangelical
Covenant Church pastor Virgil Wickman, who died in 1984.
The service will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Tacoma Lutheran Home, 1301
North Highlands Parkway in Tacoma. A private burial will be held at New
Tacoma Cemetery. Mrs. Wickman died October 31.
According to information published in Tacoma News Tribune, she
was born in Rockford, Illinois, January 10, 1908, to Swedish immigrants
Alma and Ernest Johnson. In 1920 the family moved to Upsala, Minnesota,
and in 1922 relocated to Minneapolis. Lillian graduated from Minnehaha
Academy in Minneapolis and for several years worked in the accounting
department of a mail order house.
The family was very active in the Covenant Church in Minneapolis and it
was there she met Virgil Wickman. They were married in November 1937 and
moved near the church that Virgil was serving as pastor in Columbia
Heights, Minnesota. During the next four decades they served six
Covenant churches across the country, retiring in Tacoma in 1978 at the
Tacoma Lutheran Home. Until age 93, Lillian regularly attended the First
Covenant Church of Tacoma.
In a letter written by Virgil shortly before his death, he paid tribute
to Lillian, saying, "I don't know what would have happened to the three
of you kids if it hadn't been for the good humor and common sense of
your mother." She was a woman of deep faith and strength. Her life was
full as a stay-at-home mom, singing in the church choirs, serving on a
variety of church committees and being a gracious hostess. In her 50s
and 60s she took classes in writing, tailoring, oil painting, upholstery
and nurse's aid. She is also remembered as an accomplished Scrabble
player well into her 90's.
She was preceded in death by her husband Virgil and son, Torrey, in
2003. She is survived by son Douglas and wife Sherri Wickman of Mammoth
Lakes, California; daughter Julie Howard of Pomona, California; and
daughter-in-law Rosemary Wickman-Lukens of Tacoma. She has four
grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson.
Lillian is also survived by sister and brother-in-law Myrtle and Stanley
Olson of Burnsville Minnesota, and a host of other relatives and friends
around the country.
Memorial contributions may be made in Lillian's name to the Tacoma
Lutheran Home Foundation.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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