Aalgaard, Swanhild ("Swanie") Marie was born November 14, 1925, to Oswald and Gudrun Aalgaard, at Cooperstown, North Dakota. Because her mother was sometimes ill, and her father died when Swanie was eight years old, she spent many of her childhood years at her grandfather, T.T. Fuglestad's home, near Cooperstown. During her working days, she was a legal secretary in Fergus Fall, MN; a stenographer in New York City; a speech and English teacher, and Dean of Girls at Hillcrest Academy, in Fergus Falls; a speech and English teacher in New York Mills, MN and Roosevelt Senior High School, in Fergus Falls. She was a high school counselor in a Chicago suburb from 1958-1960. In 1960 she came to Minneapolis. She served as a high school counselor in Independent School District 281 (Robbinsdale) for twenty-five years, before she retired in 1985. Swanie loved the outdoors. She especially enjoyed "birding" and flower gardening. She loved to travel. She was an amateur photo-grapher, and several of her pictures were published. She loved to read, so not surprisingly, she was the Ebenezer Church librarian from 1964 to 2004. She also enjoyed writing. She wrote the Fuglestad family history, Though the Mountains Depart, published in 1977. In 1994 she updated the family history and family tree, and published that updated version. For several years she wrote, "Jottings," published in the Faith and Fellowship. She was also, for a time, the editor of the Ebenezer Newsletter. However, she felt her chief ministry was in letter writing. She especially enjoyed writing to missionaries. She passed away in Minneapolis, on October 23, 2015, at the age of 89. Memorial service at 1:00 p.m. November 14, 2015, at Ebenezer Lutheran Brethren Church, 1830 E 41st St, Minneapolis, MN 55407.

Published on November 1, 2015 in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.