Benedictine Living Community Crookston: Brekken family highlighted
Submitted
Crookston Times
Readers: Throughout the month of May, The SUMMIT Assisted Living, part of Benedictine Living Community – Crookston, is partnering with the Crookston Times to spotlight tenants who have children and/or grandchildren who work at Benedictine. This first piece, featuring Wanda Brekken, was submitted by members of the Albert and Wanda Brekken family.
Wanda Brekken was born Wanda Irene Pester in 1920 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. She was the youngest of six children born to Henry and Elizabeth Pester. Wanda had three older sisters, Marion, Margaret and Dorothy, and two older brothers, Harlan and Charles. She spent her early years on a farm in Johnstown ND and grew up in the depression. She didn't have a lot of clothes and didn't get "hand-me-downs" from her sisters as the clothes were worn out by the time, she could fit into them. The family moved to Crookston around 1929 and lived just east of Crookston on Highway #2 where the road curves. In the early days, the highway was only two lanes, and the location became infamous as "Pester's Curve" because of all the vehicles that would miss the curve and crash in the night.