Elaine Bloomgren, age 74, of Minneapolis died October 20, 2017 at her home. She is survived by her brothers, John (Faith) Thornberg, Dave (Barb) Thornberg, Bob (Melanie) Thornberg and Dan (Lisa) Thornberg; sisters, Jane (Craig) Swanson, Candace (Geoff) Daigle, Sheryl Thornberg and Janet (George) Smith. No public services will be held.
Elaine LaVerne (Thornberg) Bloomgren, age 74
July 27, 1943–October 20, 2017
Elaine was born on July 27, 1943, in Braham, Minnesota—the 3rd of a family of nine and the first girl for Herb & LaVerne Thornberg. Her early years were spent in Brainerd, MN and then the family moved to south Minneapolis where she attended Warrington Elementary, Bryant Junior High and Central High School. She graduated from Anoka High School in 1961, after the family moved to Coon Rapids.
One of her happiest childhood memories was of the summers she spent as a young child with the family on Gilbert Island up in the Brainerd Lakes area. The family rented a cabin which could only be reached by boat and there she vividly remembered the open windows, the rustling of the trees, waves lapping on the shore and fun-filled days of trying to raise turtles from eggs, swimming, fishing and evening games of “Moonlight, starlight, hope to see a ghost tonight.”
After high school, she moved out of the house and got her own apartment in Minneapolis, the city she loved and where she lived for the rest of her life. She was briefly married to Ed Bloomgren. She held several jobs including flower arranging at Daytons, photo-processing and retouching, a stint in the finance department of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and finally at TCF Bank where she worked for many years as an Operations Specialist in Dispute Resolution and Unauthorized Check Card claims. She received a monthly All Star award once for resolving an unusual and unexpected card issue that occurred at the end of the day for a TCF business customer traveling on a business trip. She did very much enjoy “problem solving” and “fixing.”
Elaine did things her own way. An intensely private person, she loved to read and research, especially medical information, nutrition, politics, art and the Bible. Her favorite version was the Amplified Bible and she even adopted its style of writing into her own, using plenty of synonyms in her greeting cards and evangelism tracts which always included little character cartoons she had drawn by hand.
She was legally blind but you’d never have known it. She had adaptive devices, magnifiers and glasses to help her see. She also loved photography and had extensive camera gear so as to never miss a good picture. The camera lens was an eye to the world for her.
Elaine went home to heaven peacefully on October 20, 2017. She is preceded in death by her former husband, Ed Bloomgren and parents Herbert W. and LaVerne E. Thornberg.