Doris Michaelson | Obituaries | ladysmithnews.com

Doris Anna (Hartman) Michaelson died Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021, at Clark County Rehab and Living Center in Owen, with family by her side.

Doris, age 97, was born on Feb. 28, 1924, to Edward and Jenny (Fields) Hartman in Ladysmith in the Fields family home in Ladysmith. She was the third daughter in a family of four girls, Edna (Schmidt), Vivian (Passehl) and Jane (Hon). She attended South Side elementary school, Ladysmith middle school, and graduated from Ladysmith High School in 1942.

After graduation she apprenticed with Verna James and worked at the NuMode Beauty Salon. She married Robert Earl Michaelson on April 21, 1945, in Ladysmith. After Bob’s time in the Army ended, Doris and Bob traveled around northern Wisconsin with his job as a telegrapher working for the Soo Line railroad and lived briefly in Appleton where he drove taxi. Later they lived in Ladysmith where he worked for Rudy’s TV and owned juke boxes. In 1956 they moved to Hawthorne, Calif., where Bob worked for Hughs Aircraft, then to Globe and Miami, Arizona, where he worked for a cable company and where Doris worked as secretary. Along the way they had three children: Christine, Mark and Susan. Bob died in December 1958 and Doris moved with the three children back to Ladysmith. She worked as a beautician for Ellen Raleigh at The NuMode Beauty Salon until the summer of 1960 when she opened Doris Ann’s Beauty Salon on Miner Avenue in Ladysmith. In 1970 she moved the shop to Lake Avenue and continued to work and manage it until her retirement in 1997.

“The Shop” was always busy with women laughing, exchanging recipes and gossiping. Her kids could never get by with anything because a customer was bound to come into the shop and tell her all about it. Outside of the shop her best friends were women who owned other beauty shops and businesses in town and they would regularly get together to eat Mexican food, play cards, and attend beauty shows.

After retirement she concentrated on perfecting her pies, Scandinavian pastries, fudge, and caramels. Each December she always managed to “ruin” one batch of fudge and one batch of caramels that weren’t good enough to give away and she would just have to eat herself. In the summer she kept planting more and more flowers and talking her son and sons-in-law into building her more flower beds. In between seasons she mastered knitting, crocheting and spoiling her cat, Becky.

She was an active member of the Hope Lutheran Church volunteering with communion glasses and baking many Norwegian pastries for their annual cookie walk and Scandinavian dinners. She enjoyed researching and learning about her Norwegian ancestry. She traveled to Norway to meet her Norwegian cousins; she also learned rosemaling and created many types of needle crafts depicting Scandinavian arts. She was a member of the Sons of Norway.

Family was important to Doris, and she frequently drove to Colorado Springs every summer with the children to visit her sisters and their families. She enjoyed spending the time with them and was very active in their lives through phone calls and letters. And she always carefully followed the activities of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren who were the best thing in the world to her.

She is survived by her daughters, Christine Rognsvoog of Green Bay and Susan Dahmus of Rochester, Minn.; daughter-in-law, Carol Michaelson of Hudson; grandchildren, Amy (Adam) Peters, Jeff (Cori) Michaelson, Jennifer (Hank) Poncelet, Aaron (Tracy) Michaelson and Karen (Nathan) Brunner; 10 great-grandchildren; four step-great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her son, Mark; her sisters; her in-laws; her sons-in-law, Chuck Rognsvoog and Dave Dahmus; nieces; nephews and many friends.

She is the last of her generation in our family. We will miss the family stories and arguments that could only be settled with looking up the topic in the 1959 encyclopedia. We have many memories though that will always remind us of her and keep her dear.

Her funeral service will be at 11 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 16, at Hope Lutheran Church with a time of visitation at 10 a.m. Lunch will follow the service after the cemetery in the church fellowship hall.

Nash-Jackan Funeral Home is assisting the family.