Catherine Fossay

Catherine Eleanor Edlund, the eldest of nine children of Syvert and Margaret Edlund, was born July 18, 1904, in Fergus Falls, MN, where she grew up and received her education. Catherine graduated from Moorhead (MN) State Teachers College in 1924. As a young lady, Catherine taught school at Oak Mound School, north of Moorhead.

On June 15, 1927, Kay was married to Obert Fossay, at Fergus Falls and they made their home in the Oak Mound area. She served as organist at Oak Mound Congregational Church for twenty-four years. Catherine and Obert later moved into Moorhead.

After her husband, Obert, died on May 6, 1956, Kay joined the staff of Riverside School in Moorhead, where she taught until she retired in the late 1960s. She was active in First Congregational Church in Moorhead, where she was a longtime choir member. She was also a fifty-year member of Eastern Star and a member of the Altrusa Club.
Catherine enjoyed spending time with family and friends, traveling, doing crossword puzzles and summers on Floyd Lake.

In 1997, Kay moved to live with her daughter in Bemidji, MN. She later moved with them to Red Wing, MN, where she died on Friday, April 1, 2005, in a nursing home, at the age of 100. In addition to her husband and her parents, she was preceded in death by two daughters, Carolynn Jean Thompson and Mary Ann Fretland; two great-grandsons; two sisters and five brothers.

Catherine is survived by two daughters, Sally (Darrell) Reber, Kent, WA, and Elizabeth (Marv) Skaar, Red Wing; a sister, Marguerite (Ezra) Liechty, Jamestown, ND; fifteen grandchildren; and twenty-four great-grandchildren.


Visitation: One hour prior to the funeral, in the church.


Funeral service: Thursday, April 7, 2005, at 1 PM,
First Congregational-United Church of Christ,
Moorhead, Minnesota


Burial: Oak Mound Cemetery, rural Moorhead.