As Bemidji artist fights for life in hospital, her home is destroyed by fire
Friends and family members are rallying to support artist Maureen O’Brien after a June 1 chimney fire destroyed her 103-year-old home a mile south of Solway, Minn. She has been battling life-threatening medical ailments since March, and is unaware of the fire. 2:00 pm, Jun. 9, 2021 ×
Local artist Maureen O Brien is hospitalized in Minneapolis and unaware that her rural Solway home was destroyed by fire on June 1. (Pioneer file photo)
BEMIDJI, Minn. Maureen O’Brien is known to many in the Bemidji area as a talented and generous artist.
Beltrami County Public Health is now tracking 90 active cases as the vaccine rollout takes shape regionally. 2:31 pm, Jan. 8, 2021 ×
BEMIDJI About three weeks have passed since the first vaccines were administered in the Bemidji area and slowly, but surely, doses are getting out area residents.
The phase is labeled 1A by the Minnesota Department of Health. Phase 1B will be next with additional frontline essential workers and adults aged 75 and above. Then, 1C will include adults ages 65-74, as well as people ages 16-64 with medical conditions. Other essential workers will be included in 1C, too. The vaccine is coming into the state from several different channels, said Beltrami County Public Health Director Cynthia Borgen. For our Indian Health Service partners, it s coming directly through the federal government. It comes through the state to our health care providers, and also there are small portions going to local public health offices. At some point, as part
Arlys A. Weaver
Arlys Weaver died peacefully on December 8, 2020 at Neilson Place in Bemidji, where she enjoyed the last years of a life well-lived. She was born February 26, 1920, in Cando, North Dakota. Her father, Oscar Swenson, emigrated from Norway at age 4 with his family on a steamship to Ellis Island. The Swensons homesteaded near Saint John, ND. Her mother, Ella Bowen, was born in a covered wagon coming up from Iowa to Minnesota, and met Oscar in the farm country of North Dakota, where they worked just after WW1. Oscar and Ella moved to Minnesota, where they farmed on the Ponsford Prairie northwest of Park Rapids. Arlys met her husband, Harold Weaver, when he came to the Swenson farm with a threshing crew. Arlys and Harold married in 1940 and owned a dairy farm near Park Rapids. Arlys was a fine homemaker, but once her children were old enough, she worked at the Hubbard County Courthouse, the medical clinic, and the local gas company until her retirement. She enjoyed