Anita R. Colbaugh, age 89, of Cambridge passed away March 9, 2024 at GracePointe Crossing. A memorial will be held on July 5, 2024 at her former residence on the Rum River, 29617 River Ridge Rd NW, Isanti, MN, 55040. This will be at 1 PM – 3 PM.
Anita was born on January 19, 1935, at the Chilstrom farm in Athens Township, MN, just south of Isanti, MN. She grew up on the family farm just west of Isanti. She graduated from Cambridge High School in 1953, and she attended Northwestern in Roseville, MN for 1 year.
Anita was a born-again Christian and loved to play piano and organ at many local churches. She also loved to play her accordion at local nursing homes to brighten others’ lives.
Anita helped to run the family cabinet shop until she started her own business Stix and Stones in 1976. She also worked at the Billy Graham Call Center for a number of years. Looking for something closer to home, she became a CNA and worked for a company doing home health care.
Anita also loved to travel: she traveled across the western and southern U.S. in the 60s and 70s. She visited Israel twice as well as Thailand with groups that helped work on fixing up buildings.
She is survived by her brother, Ronald Bergman, Michael (Mary) Colbaugh, Mark (Jeannie) Colbaugh; her 18 grandchildren; many great-grandchildren and nieces and nephews. Anita was preceded in death by her mother and father, Harold Sr. and Ida (Chilstrom) Bergman; her brothers, Harold Bergman, Jr. and Roger Bergman; her sisters, Marjorie (Kermit) Larson and Marilyn (Kenneth) Olson; and her youngest son, Matthew Colbaugh.
Mrs. Colbaugh taught Release Time at Elim Baptist Church in Isanti when I was in fourth grade.
Although it took several years to bear fruit, I believe her faithfulness played a part in my coming to faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I am forever grateful.
I look forward to thanking her personally in the future!
I was married to her son, Matt. He gave her a beautiful granddaughter, Kayla. After Matt passed, Anita stayed a fixture in our lives. After I remarried and had 3 boys, she treated them as her own. She was Grandma Nita. My boys loved her. We have fond memories of her bringing games to Old Country Buffet and playing for hours.
She’ll be missed.