Harriett I. (Jacobsen) Nielsen

Harriett Irene Nielsen, 96, of Dannebrog passed away peacefully with her family by her side on Sunday, August 6, 2023, at her home in Dannebrog.

A Celebration of Harriett’s life will be held at 10:30 A.M. on Saturday, September 2, 2023 at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Dannebrog.  Pastor Sheri Lodel will officiate.  A Private Inurnment will be held in the Oakridge Cemetery in Dannebrog. Please come and have a glass of wine in honor of Harriett as family greets friends from 4-7 P.M. on Friday, September 1, 2023 at Jacobsen-Greenway-Dietz Funeral Home of St. Paul.  In leu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the family for later designation to organizations Harriett chose.

Harriett was born April 8, 1927, to Andrew Jens Jacobsen and Magdalena (Rasmussen) Jacobsen on a farm west of Elba.  She attended Elba School, graduating in 1945.  Harriett waited for her future husband Forrest “Bumps” Nielsen to return from Germany where he served in World War II.  When he returned,they were married.  They started their married life farming near Dannebrog.  Bumps became a rural mail carrier in 1949 and began his route during the blizzard of ’49, leaving Harriett and baby Eric on the farm for a week.  This perpetuated their move to Dannebrog, where baby Ramona was born.  Harriett lived in the same house surrounded by her memories until the day of her death.

Harriett will be best remembered for her cooking and the joy it brought people.  Because eating “makes people happy”, she opened Harriett’s Danish in 1987 and brought people joy until she closed in 2010. Prior to the Harriett’s Danish she worked the post office, State Bank of Dannebrog, and she and Bumps owned and operated Nielsen’s Sundry from 1955 – 1970.  In her spare time, she loved to wallpaper, and many area homes still display her work.

Besides working and raising her family, Harriett always believed her greatest service was when she was President of the extension club; she was instrumental in getting people to take the Salk polio vaccine.  Harriett belonged to Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church of Dannebrog, she was an active member of the American Legion Auxiliary# 241 for 72 years, where she held leadership positions at the local, state and national level.  She was a member for decades of the Danish Brotherhood.  Harriett also served on the Howard County election board, was a member of the Booster Club and was always promoting Dannebrog.  She loved collecting stamps, coins, antiques, calling bingo, playing bridge, making scrapbooks, and in her later years she loved to text.

Her family left to cherish her memory and to laugh telling stories of her, are her children, Eric and Maxine Nielsen of Dannebrog and Ramona Graves of Evergreen, Colorado; nine grandchildren; and eleven great-grandchildren; sister-in-law, Burdette Jacobsen of Grand Island; and many nephews, nieces and friends.

Harriett was preceded in death by her husband, Forrest “Bumps”; her brothers, Lester and Allen; her sisters, Alice Mayne and Gladys Stinson.

Harriett I. Nielsen was joyful in life and peaceful in her passing.  When you walk the Dannebrog trail, pause at her butterfly garden, smile, and remember Harriett!