Phyllis Underdahl Obit

PHYLLIS UNDERDAHL, 88, of Ironton, passed away at Cuyuna Regional Medical Center in Crosby on July 10, 2020. She was born on Aug. 29, 1931 in northern Iowa to Alfred and Ada (Seim) Hauan. She married Paul Underdahl on May 28, 1954 in Crystal Lake, IA.
She received her teaching certificate from Waldorf College and began teaching in a one room schoolhouse in Iowa where she also taught elementary school in Cylinder and Rake, IA. In Minnesota she taught at Frost Elementary, returned to school at Mankato State College where she graduated with honors in 1970 and began teaching at Montgomery-Lonsdale where she was Teacher of the Year in 1976-77. She was a member of Sweet Adelines of Rice County. She first played keyboards for her church in Crystal Lake, IA as a teenager and recently did the same for seven years at Bethlehem Lutheran Church near Aitkin. She gave piano lessons and ran Grapes of Wrath, an antique and book store with her son in Ironton.
Preceding her in death are her parents, her husband Paul in 2000 and her brother Russell Hauan in 2010.
Phyllis is survived by and will be greatly missed by her sister, Arlis Kipfer of Puyallup, WA; her daughter Myra Nelson; son-in-law Rick Nelson of Brainerd; grandson Brian Nelson and his wife Jenny Nelson; great-grandson Andrew of Sartell; grandson Scott Nelson of Elk River, her son Leif Underdahl of Ironton; sisters-in-law Beverly Norman and Helen Underdahl, both of Fairmont; sister-in-law Ramona Hauan of Mason City, IA, cousin Jim and wife Emily Hauan of Minneapolis and many other former students, friends and relatives and by her beloved cats.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at 1 p.m. Aug 22 in the old school in Frost, MN.