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Audrey I. Tessmer
Audrey “Tolly” Tessmer passed away peacefully at her home in Scottsdale, AZ on May 17, 2021 at the age of 93.
Tolly was born at home in Kensington, MN to Elmer and Hazel Tollefson and attended a one-room schoolhouse before moving to Alexandria from the family farm. Her adventures began on the family farm riding working horses with her father, milking cows with her cousins, cooking and sewing with her mother, listening to news and stories in Norwegian, and loving her baby lamb.
While studying home economics and design at the University of Minnesota, she modeled for the fashionable Young Quinlan store in downtown Minneapolis and was crowned Queen of the Minneapolis Aquatennial with flowers from her Alexandria sponsor Anderson Florist where she’d worked through school. She led the marching band as a majorette and was crowned homecoming queen at the U, dancing with big band icon Stan Kenton in a stylish outfit made by her mother. On a weekend home, she