Nina Virginia Olsen Dahlquist, 84, of Idaho Falls, passed away Saturday, April 18, 2009, at Mount Vernon Care Center of natural causes. She was under the care of Creekside Hospice.

Virginia was born Nina Virginia Olsen on October 5, 1924, in Iona, Idaho, to Eugene Theodore Olsen and Nina Johanna Clapp Olsen. She grew up and attended school in Iona. After finishing high school, she went on to get her teaching certificate at Albion State Normal for teachers and then returned to her home town to teach in the same school she attended as a child. After the war, she moved to Salt Lake City and received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

While she was in nursing training, she met Joseph G. Dahlquist. They were married and soon moved to Seal Beach in California. After adopting their son, David, Virginia decided to be an at-home mom.

Eventually Virginia and her family moved to Huntington Beach, California. After raising her son, she returned to nursing and worked at Pacific Care Hospital in Anaheim, helping to bring many newborns into this world as an OB Nurse. When she retired, she returned to Iona to help her mom and be near her brothers and sister.

She was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Virginia loved to dance, knit, watch old movies, read and play the piano. She had a close relationship with her niece, Jane Olsen, who cared for her recently.

Survivors include her son, David Joseph (Karen) Dahlquist of San Juan Capistrano, Calif.; brothers, Ronald Olsen, E. Kay (Zola) Olsen, both of Iona; and niece, Jane Olsen of Idaho Falls.

She was preceded in death by her parents and a sister, Margarite McNamara.

Private family services will be held. Arrangements are under the direction of Wood Funeral Home. Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.woodfuneralhome.com.