FAIRMONT, MINNESOTA – Judy Ann (Backer) Lundgreen, age 84 of Fairmont, Minnesota, suddenly passed away April 10, 2024, at St. Joseph, Missouri. Judy was born to Alex Backer and Helen (Wasmiller) Backer on February 17, 1940, in Torrington. She grew up on a farm in Huntley and attended school there through the ninth grade. She moved to Torrington in the summer of 1955 and started attending school at Torrington High School in the tenth grade. After a while, a boy in her home room introduced himself to her. He was Michael Lundgreen. When he finally got enough courage to ask her for a date, she told him she couldn’t date until she was 16 years old. He then asked when she would be 16. On February 18, 1956, Mike asked her out on her very first date. That’s when their relationship began. Mike took her to the high school proms when they were juniors and seniors. On their senior class trip to Denver, Colorado, they had some free time and she and Mike visited jewelry stores - looking at wedding ring sets. She graduated from Torrington High School May 20, 1958. She and Mike walked together when the class marched into the school for graduation. (Note that B for Backer is not next to L for Lundgreen.) Everyone else was in alphabetical order; they were special.
On September 1, 1958, Judy moved to 199 Main Street, Broomfield, Colorado, to stay with her aunt and uncle, Lillian and David Backer, so she could look for work. She saw an ad in the paper: “FILE CLERK, permanent position, 40-hr., 5-day wk. Age 18 to 30. 1640 Logan St.” On September 15, 1958, she started working for Henry Walz and S. John Johns of the McKinney Fire Insurance Company at 1640 Logan Street, Denver, Colorado. Her salary was $95 a week. Every day she took a bus to and from work, 45 minutes each way. She typed insurance documents and maintained the filing system. On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1958, she accepted an engagement ring from Mike. Judy used some of the money she earned to purchase a complete set of Revere Ware pots and pans and a Samsonite luggage set. Her last day at work in Denver was June 5, 1959. She moved back home at 2302 East F St, Torrington to make plans for the wedding.
Judy married Michael Lundgreen at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 26, 1959, in Torrington at the Congregational Church with Reverend W. W. Hiller officiating. She and Mike’s first home was an upstairs apartment at 408 Clark Street in Laramie, Wyoming where they lived from July 29, 1959, to March 1960. The missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Wade and Elder Moon, were invited to come and teach the discussions to Judy. She. always made a Boston Crème Pie for them when they came to visit. Mike baptized and confirmed her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 23, 1959.
Judy worked at the Bank of Laramie filing checks and running a posting machine. One holiday season she worked at the Ben Franklin dime store in the jewelry and candy departments and wrapped gifts. In March 1960 she and Mike moved into a basement apartment at 557 North 8th Street.
On August 25, 1960, Judy and Mike received their endowments and were sealed for time and eternity at the Idaho Falls Temple. President William L. Killpack performed the sealing ordinance. At this time, Judy was pregnant and was having morning sickness and had to eat crackers to settle her stomach.
The couple’s first child, Cynthia Ann was born on February 24, 1961. Judy was one class short of being able to graduate from the LDS Institute of Religion; her education was cut short by the birth of Cynthia. In July 1961 the little family moved to their last home in Laramie at 1202 ½ Flint Street, which was 1 ½ blocks North of the campus. On May 28, 1962, Mike graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor of Science with Honor degree in electrical engineering.
On December 25, 1962, Susan Marie was born. In February 1963 the young parents and their two little girls moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where Mike went to work for Collins Radio. Their first home in Cedar Rapids was a little house they rented at 1244 34th St NE. A few months later the house was sold, so in September 1963 they moved to another rental home in Marion, Iowa at 1271 Washington Drive. They bought their first home at 2116 Larry Drive NE, Cedar Rapids on October 31, 1964. Their only son, James Michael, was born June 17, 1966. A daughter, Julia Kay, born on June 24, 1970, completed their family.
After working for Collins Radio for 10 years, Mike went to work for Weigh-Tronix, Inc., a subsidiary of Art’s Way Manufacturing in Armstrong, Iowa. The family moved to Estherville, Iowa in February 1973. They purchased a home at 1372 North 14th Street. Mike commuted from Estherville to Armstrong for two years. In August 1975, the Lundgreen family relocated to a new home in Armstrong at 405 Adams Street.
In July 1976, Weigh-Tronix moved to Fairmont, Minnesota. Mike had to commute to work again - Armstrong to Fairmont and back. In the summer of 1981, he and Judy purchased an empty lot in Fairmont at 408 Martin Court. In October the basement was excavated, and construction began. The basement was completed, and the house was enclosed so work could progress through the winter. Judy and Mike did all the painting and stained and varnished all of the woodwork. In the spring they planted the trees and shrubs. They moved into their new home in August 1982.
June 30, 1999, was Mike’s last day at Weigh-Tronix. Mike had volunteered for a layoff and the severance package was 54 weeks’ pay. Mike used part of the money to buy a bright red 1999 Ford Escort ZX2, his “severance car.” He immediately started working four days a week at Blue Earth Research in Mankato, Minnesota.
In January 2000, Judy and Mike and were called to serve as ordinance workers in the Saint Paul Minnesota temple in Oakdale, Minnesota. They made many trips to the temple in Oakdale. They often loaded their vehicle up with other brothers and sisters from their congregation who also wanted to attend the temple. Mike could trust Judy to keep a watchful eye on the traffic and a lookout for deer. Their faithfulness and devotion to committing one day every week to serve in the temple was an inspiration to their children, grandchildren, friends, and congregation. After 16 years as weekly temple ordinance workers, they were released in January 2016.
In May 2015, Mike and Judy downsized and moved from their house on 408 Martin Court to the Dewey Street Condos at 232 S Dewey St Unit 107, Fairmont. Judy was so happy her curio cabinet and two kitchen hutch China cabinets along with the furnishings and wall pictures from their house fit perfectly in their condo. She arranged the furniture and hung the pictures in a way reminiscent of their 408 Martin Court home.
Judy loved spending time with her husband, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She loved to have the grandchildren gathered around her and on her lap while she read to them. She liked playing all the kids’ card games with them: Old Maid, Go Fish, and Uno. The grandkids knew grandma would color with them. She was a hands-on, loving grandma.
From grade school when she won school spelling tests and throughout her life, Judy was an excellent speller. She was Mike’s spell checker. She and Mike enjoyed being outside; they would walk several times a week for about 1.6 miles. In the summertime they walked, holding hands, along the bike trail West of Sisseton Lake and during the winter they walked in the mall.
Judy’s hobbies were cooking, baking, playing the piano by ear, singing, working in her flower garden, and going camping with Mike. She enjoyed reading the scriptures and the Sunday School and Relief Society lesson manuals. She also read and subscribed to several magazines. Her favorites were the Ensign, the Church News, the Fairmont Sentinel, the Fairmont Photo Press, Cappers Weekly, The Lady’s Home Journal and of course, her many “wish books.” She recently read the book, “The Butterfly Effect,” by Andy Andrews.
On their Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary, July 2009, Mike and Judy went on an Alaskan cruise with their daughter Cindy and husband Ron, and Mike’s brother Dave and wife Penny. On their Sixtieth Wedding Anniversary, July 2019, they celebrated with many of their extended family at a dinner in the Holiday Inn in Fairmont. Judy’s final family reunion was April 8, 2024, in Texas to see solar eclipse with all her children. The days leading up to the eclipse were spent as a family, recalling the crazy times the kids had hidden from their parents, only to find out they knew all along. Judy listened intently, with a smile on her face, watching her children and her husband relive long forgotten adventures. The day prior to the eclipse, a traditional family picture was taken. After the eclipse and the eventful few days together, when asked what her favorite thing was of all she’d done, she nodded to herself, smiled and said, “The eclipse.”
Judy was happy to know that she and Mike could be together forever as a family. She loved the Lord and served in many callings in the church and was always there helping those in need. She served others quietly, bringing over meals, sending cards, visiting the sick in the hospital, befriending the lonely, and calling someone because she felt a prompting. She never talked about what she did. Judy had great faith in prayer, and she taught this to her children by example. Her response to hearing her children had a problem or had lost something was to ask, “Did you pray about it?”
Judy and Michael were living in Fairmont at the time of her passing. The funeral was held in Blue Earth, Minnesota April 19, 2024, at the Ten Talents Center in Blue Earth with the Patton Funeral Home assisting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the services.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Helen (Wasmiller) Backer and Alex Backer; her brothers, Max Backer and Fred Backer; her sister, Joan Backer; husband’s parents, Beverly (Bohman) Lundgreen and Wesley Lundgreen and brother-in-law Andrew Lundgreen. Those left to cherish her memory are her husband, Michael Lundgreen; children, Cynthia and Ronald Goerndt, Susan and Edward Overy, James and Michele Lundgreen, Julia Bergener, her sisters Barbara Hansen, Renae Duckworth, brother David and Susan Backer and fourteen grandchildren, fourteen great-greatgrandchildren.
