Funeral services for Thelma Olson, age 93 of Mott, will be 10:30am Tuesday, January 29, at the Mott Evangelical Community Church in Mott. Pastor Brian Wright will officiate with burial in Sunnyslope Cemetery.

A family service will be held at 7:00pm on Monday evening at the Evanson-Jensen Funeral Home in Mott.

Serving as casketbearers are Gayle, Doug, and Ryan Olson; Douglas S., Douglas M., and Bruce Schwartz. All of Thelma's nieces and nephews are considered honorary bearers.

Thelma Iona (Thompson) Olson, was born on January 3, 1915 in a sod house on the homestead of her pioneer parents "Tommy" and Iva Ree (Bratcher) Thompson in Chandler Township, Adams County, North Dakota. Her grade school years were spent at country schools; and she graduated from Mott High School in 1931. During her high school years, she was editor of the school newspaper "The Cardinal." She attended one year at Dickinson Teacher's College where she studied art.

On November 15, 1941 she married Donald Olson at her sister's (Eleanor) house with close friends and family attending. After the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor just a three weeks later, her new husband went to war and was away for four years. When Donald returned from the war, they settled down in Mott where they raised their son Terrence (Terry). Thelma worked as a bookkeeper and legal secretary until her retirement in 1977.

Thelma's love of art blossomed when years later she took oil painting classes from Rosemary Landsberger of Bismarck and Bob Watts of Montana. She also attended workshops conducted by Jim Powell, a professor of watercolor painting at Southern Methodist University of Texas when he showed paintings in Seattle, Washington. She studied palette knife technique under Art Kerner, Scottsdale, Arizona when he gave workshops in North Dakota. Thelma's paintings were displayed at art shows in Bismarck, Dickinson, Lemmon, Hettinger, Elgin and Mott. Her paintings received many honors, including being chosen to hang in the Governor's office, the Bank of North Dakota and in a Bismarck Gallery. She also received the "Purchase Award" when the Dickinson Library bought an oil painting to hang in their facility permanently. As a semi-professional, she sold paintings to people throughout the United States and internationally, with one going to Australia and one to Europe.

Thelma also loved to write. In the 1960s, she was a news correspondent and feature writer for the Bismarck Tribune and was a member of the North Dakota Press Women. In their annual contests, she was awarded second place for a feature story in a daily paper, a second place for a news story and also fourth place for a news story in the Bismarck Tribune. She was also a feature writer for her hometown newspaper, the Mott Pioneer Press for many years. In 1989, she was the recipient of the Silver Poet Award from the World of Poetry. One of the biggest writing and organizational projects of her life was working on the Hettinger County 50th Anniversary Committee with France Butts and Katherine Landis. The three of them wrote and produced a pageant depicting the entire history of the County since 1907. Another accomplishment for the 50th Anniversary was working with R.J. Bloedau and Charles Crane (both attorneys) researching and producing a play dramatizing the first murder trial in Hettinger County. The play titled "The Corpse Wore Mittens" was enacted at both the 50th and 70th Anniversary Celebrations of Hettinger County.

Active in community service, she served on the Hettinger County Fair Board, church boards, church building committees, Mott School Board as clerk, and city zoning committee, to name a few. She was involved in many organizations, including Eastern Star and Hettinger County Homemakers Clubs. She was a member of the Mott Monday Study Group for about 30 years. She was also a 'bridge buff.' Along with her friend, Leola Maercklein, they organized the "Bridge Marathon for Good Samaritan Club," which ran from 1975 through 1985 and raised approximately $2000 for the nursing home. In June 1999, Thelma became a resident of that Good Samaritan Home in Mott and lived there until she quietly passed away in her sleep during the early morning hours of January 26, 2008 at the age of 93 years and 23 days.

She was a member of the Mott Methodist Church and later the Mott Evangelical Community Church where she spent many years serving as one of the organists/pianists, singing in the choir, and providing other special music.

Thelma is survived by her sister, Alice Berreth (Reuben) of Mott, her brother, Leonard Thompson of Regent, her step-grandchildren Tiffany Zimmerman and Geoffrey Mamerow, her great step-grandchildren Nicholas and Shane, and many nieces and nephews.

Thelma was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Donald, her son Terrence, daughter-in-law Dianne, and three sisters, Florence and Elsie who died in childhood, and Eleanor (Thompson) Schwartz.

A memorial has been established.