Services for Chester Anderson will be at 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, at Engebretson Funeral Home in Luverne. The Rev. Dell B. Sanderson will officiate. Military honors and burial will follow at Maplewood Cemetery in Luverne.
Chester J. Anderson, 79, Luverne, died Sunday, Feb. 16, 2003, at Minnesota Veterans Home in Luverne.
Chester Anderson was born to Hans Christian and Lydia Eliza (Broughton) Anderson on July 10, 1923, on the family farm near White Earth, N.D.
He married Elsie Pritchard on Nov. 25, 1942, in Luverne. He entered the U.S. Army in May 1943. He was awarded the purple heart and was honorably discharged in December 1945.
When he returned from the war, he and his wife moved to Powers Lake, N.D. He received his pilot’s license from Williston Flying Service and began his career as a crop duster. He was federally licensed as an aircraft inspector and instructor, and also flew charter flights. He continued his education at the State School of Science in Wahpeton, N.D., and Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., earning an engineering degree. In 1968 they moved to Seattle, Wash. In 1969 they went to Howard City, Mich. He retired in 1986. In the mid 1990s they moved back to North Dakota, then made their home in Michigan in the late 1990s, and moved back to Luverne in 2000.
Mr. Anderson was a member of the VFW in Howard City. He had a great ear for music and was an accomplished fiddle player.
Survivors include his wife Elsie Anderson, Luverne; four daughters, Jeanette (Marvin) Skalicky, Luverne, Bonnie (Doug) Ralph, Sioux Falls, Patricia (Jeff) Moyer, Lakeview, Mich,, and Mary Wilson, Greenville, Mich., three sons, Michael Anderson, Lansing, Mich., Roger (Diana) Anderson, Greenville, and James (Perri) Anderson, Howard City; 24 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; one brother, Mervin (Doris) Anderson Brush, Colo.; and two sisters, Evelyn Pritchard, Sioux Falls, and Kathryn (John) Leffler, Memphis, Tenn.
Mr. Anderson was preceded in death by his parents, a granddaughter, Tina Wilson, two infant sisters, Pearl and Vera Anderson, and one brother, Ernest Anderson.
A tree will be planted in honor of Chester Anderson by Luverne Community Hospice.
Engebretson Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
