Eleanor Jeanette Larson was born on September 25, 1930 to Oswald and Gunda (Pederson) Klukken in their farm home in Gordon Township, 6 miles east of Osakis, Minnesota. She was baptized and confirmed at Elim Lutheran Church in rural Osakis and attended District #63 “country” school for 8 years. She graduated from Osakis High School on May 28, 1948. After high school she did some child care work for a family in the community and also some secretarial work at Osakis Silo Company. But, at the end of 1945, she had fallen in love with Loren Larson, a young man from the community, with whom she had church and family ties and they were married at Elim on April 24, 1949. After a long honeymoon trip to California, they dove into the life of becoming/being a farm family. After a few years of working a rented farm, they purchased the Klukken “home” farm from her parents and lived the rest of their lives there.