Gayle Johanna Erlandson Flanders
Sept. 24, 1919 Dec. 23, 2020
It is with deep sorrow that the family of Gayle Erlandson Flanders announces her passing Dec. 23, 2020. She was 101.
A devoted wife and mother to five children, she was a born fighter. Her parents were first-generation Swedes, Sara Ellamine Erlandson, a schoolteacher, and Oscar August Erlandson, a homesteader, who made a life for his family in North Dakota. The youngest of five, Gayle had to elbow her way into the world. A bright, vivacious and incredibly quick child, she excelled at school and earned the highest grades recorded at her high school and played clarinet in the school band. She made friends for life in North Dakota who shared a history of living through the depression in a small town where everyone knew everyone else.