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Lustre News

Lustre Grade School and Lustre High School was set to resume Wednesday, Jan. 4, after the holiday break. Temperatures have moderated and ditches are filled with snow.

Several years ago, we had the privilege of meeting Sophie Klassen of Mountain Lake, Minn. She walked up to my husband, asked his name and said “I am your relative. I have asked for you and your wife to stay at my house.” We were in her church for an FEBC convention. Often, we have been asked if the Wall families that live on Wall Street are all related. Usually we said, “No, there are two separate extended families, one that came from Mountain Lake, the other from Nebraska.” But then we met Sophie. Her mother, Elisabeth is the daughter of the founding EMB Pastor, Jacob A. Wall. In 1932, after Sophie and her four brothers’ dad, John D. Olfert died, her mother remarried Rev. Abraham C. Wall of Lustre, whose three children were nearly adults. Their mother had died in February 1930. Sophie was nine when she (along with her brothers) was adopted by Rev. A.C. Wall and so she was in our family. Yes, Rev. A.C. Wall was the youngest son of Rev. C.M. Wall and brother of J.C. Wall, my husband’s great-grandfather Wall. Monday, we were notified of the death of Sophie Ruth (Olfert-Wall) Klassen on Christmas Day at her home in Mountain Lake at the age of 99. She had attended Christmas Day services, ate Christmas dinner and died in her sleep that afternoon. Sophie moved from Lustre to Oregon in 1937, at the age of 12 with the A.C. family and went on to attend Bible Institute of Los Angeles (Biola University) College in California. She married Levi Klassen and raised 8 children. She was a lovely, godly woman, and we are glad we got to meet this link between families. She was preceded in death by her husband, Levi. The Rev. Frank Wiens, who grew up at Lustre, officiated at her funeral Saturday, Dec. 31.

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