Sylvia Joyce Sorgaard

Sylvia’s service will be live streamed and can be viewed below starting at 12:45:

Sylvia Joyce Lucken was born on August 28, 1936, in Fosston, Minnesota, to parents Ole and Lois Lucken. She grew up in Fosston and attended Fosston High School and graduated in 1954. In her senior English class she sat in front of a Lengby farm boy, Clemence Sorgaard, who spent too much time teasing her. But, on the bus ride home from a choir trip to Thief River Falls that spring, she accepted his class ring and was his prom date. Almost a year later, in the spring of 1955 she said, “yes” and accepted an engagement ring.

They were married on December 26, 1955, in Fosston while he was on leave from the US Air Force. After the wedding she returned with him to Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he was an instructor in a base tech school. The following summer he was transferred to Ladd AFB in Fairbanks, Alaska. She followed a month later traveling alone to Seattle on the Empire Builder and then flying to Fairbanks on a Trans Am flight. It was in November of that year that their daughter Suzanne was born. At that time Alaska was still a territory.

Following his discharge from the Air Force in 1958, they returned to Minnesota and to Bemidji where Clem would finish college with Sylvia’s help. Sylvia had been working most of the time during those early years. Starting in Fosston and on to Texas to Fairbanks and back to Bemijdi she was the secretary in four different law firms. In the early 70’s Sylvia went back to work outside their home as a secretary for an accounting firm eventually becoming the office manager.

In 1961, she along with Clem and Suzanne, moved to Fargo where he had gotten a job teaching at Agassiz Junior High. It was in Fargo that their three sons John, Eric, and Mark were born. She was sports mom and with Clem covered much of North Dakota and Minnesota and other parts of the midwest following their sons in football, hockey, and baseball. She joked that these trips were their vacations. It was at a Twins game that she had a special surprise. Mark’s birthday is the same as Sylvia’s and granddaughter Skylar’s is on August 26. On Sylvia’s “21st” and Mark’s 40th birthday, Bert Blyleven, a Twins broadcaster, featured the three of them on one of his famous crowd “Circle Me Bert” interviews on TV.

Sylvia was the consummate cook and hostess. Everyone loved her food including a spicy shrimp dish and lemon bars. She even had her own published cookbook with the family favorites. She had two bookcases filled with cookbooks.

She was a giver. Everyone else came first. She volunteered at church. When Mark was small he would go with her to deliver meals on wheels. She was active in faculty wives groups and loved to play bridge. She loved going to concerts. She loved to read. She loved her winters in the warm sunshine of Arizona after both she and Clem retired. She was always concerned about “the kids.” Even when her memory began to fade she’d ask where the kids were. And she loved sunflowers, which is said to be a symbol of love. She surrounded herself and the home with pictures and objects of sunflowers. She and Clem celebrated their 67th anniversary last December.

Alzheimer’s ultimate cruelty was robbing Sylvia of her bright and beautiful mind and all her memories. She fought it as long as she could but in the end just grew tired. She got her wings on the morning of May 18, 2023, at Elim hospice and left this earth.

Those who left before her were her parents Ole and Lois, her brother LeRoy, and her daughter Suzanne. She is survived by her husband Clem, her three sons: John, Eric and his wife Tana, Mark and his wife Lara, and son-in-law James Eichenberger. Five grandchildren, Jordan Eichenberger, Gillian Eichenberger, Skylar Sorgaard, Silje Sorgaard, and Odin Sorgaard. She is also survived by three sisters: Janet, Elaine, Jane and her husband Dennis, and two brothers: Dale and his wife Pat and Tom and his wife Stephanie.

She will be missed.

We would like to thank the staff at Elim health care center for their gentle, patient, and thoughtful care of Sylvia. Elim is a quiet and peaceful place. We also want to thank Jim Boulger for the understanding way he handled all the details of the final arrangements. With his reassuring manner he made that process more comfortable.

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