ST. PAUL — Eleanor R. Christensen, 82, of St. Paul died Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, at Howard County Medical Center in St. Paul.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Grace Baptist Church in St. Paul. The Rev. Roger Reitz will officiate. Interment will be in Elmwood Cemetery at St. Paul. Jacobsen-Greenway Funeral Home in St. Paul is in charge of the arrangements.

Mrs. Christensen was born Nov. 25, 1932, in Goltry, Okla., to Rev. Theodore and Matilda (Schmidt) Epp. Eleanor attended school in Enid, Okla., Grand Island, and Lincoln. She graduated from Lincoln High School in 1950. She then attended Grace College of the Bible in Omaha, where she earned her degree.

She was united in marriage to Kenneth Christensen on July 1, 1953, in Lincoln. The couple moved to St. Paul, where they were both instrumental in the forming of Grace Baptist Church. Eleanor worked for the Nebraska Department of Social Services in Grand Island for 15 years. She was active in the church and had taken mission trips to Mexico and Japan. The couple celebrated their 50th anniversary in Tanzania, Africa.

As a child, Eleanor sang with her siblings on the radio during the Back to the Bible ministry, in which her father was very involved.

The couple traveled all over the world, including Europe, Africa, Mexico, Japan and Jamaica.

The couple celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2013, shortly before the death of her husband, Kenneth, on Oct. 29, 2013.

Eleanor was also an avid reader and lifetime learner, continuing to take courses and study history.

She was a member of Grace Baptist Church in St. Paul.

Survivors include three sons and two daughters-in-law, David and Donna Christensen of Lincoln, Roger Christensen of Englewood, Colo., Steve and Kate Christensen of Mendota Heights, Minn.; a daughter and son-in-law, Connie and Tom Keller of Des Moines, Iowa; 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren; a brother and sister-in-law, Herbert and Selma Epp of Lincoln; three sisters and brothers-in-law, Bernice and Bernie Wiseman of Sour Lake, Texas, Marilyn and Dave Sundeen of Waverly, and Virginia and Harold Warkintin of Corn, Okla.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Kenneth; a son, Doug Christensen; a granddaughter, Ellen Christensen; and a brother, Gerald Epp.