Shirley Jane Kolberg
July 16, 1921 ~ November 24, 2016
Shirley Jane Kolberg
Shirley Jane (Rodewald) Kolberg of Denver, CO, Chadron, NE and Pettibone, ND, entered eternal life at the age of 95, on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2016, at Swedish Hospital in Denver, CO. Shirley was born in Chicago, IL on July 16, 1921. She graduated from Tioga, ND High School and North Dakota State University and earned her MS in Home Economics at Iowa State University.
After university, she taught home economics at high schools in North Dakota and in Washington State. She later taught home economics at North Dakota State University and at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Shirley loved music; playing the piano and organ and serving as a church organist in many different churches.
In 1950 she married Ole Peter Kolberg. They raised their three daughters in Pettibone and Fargo, ND. After retirement they lived in Chadron, NE. She was preceded in death by her husband, who died in 1993. In 2005 she moved to Denver to be nearer family.
Shirley is survived by her three children, Virginia Kolberg Duym, of Worthington, OH; Heidi Kolberg Barnett, of Bryn Mawr, PA; and Beth Ellen Kolberg Gardner, of Aurora, CO; their spouses and six grandsons. The funeral service will be held in Pettibone, ND, at Our Savior Lutheran Church, at 10:30am on Saturday, December 3, 2016. Interment will at Weiser Cemetery immediately following the service. Memorial gifts could be made to Weiser Cemetery or the Salvation Army.
On behalf of Shirley's many friends at the Englewood Co Meridian community, we send our deepest sympathy and condolences to her daughters Ellen, Virginia, and Heidi and to all other members of her family. We will miss her active and spirited nature. It was a long lifetime journey around the United States for a very talented musician and educator who together with Ole raised a remarkable family. May she rest in peace back in her native North Dakota community.