Darlene Howard

Darlene Spencer Howard (1930-2024) passed away peacefully on August 5 at the home of her son Robert in Baxter, Minn. from causes incident to age. Her greatest desire was to be at home surrounded by her family, which she was able to do. She was 93 years old. Darlene was born in Palisade, Minn. on December 26, 1930, to Frank Tobias Spencer and Emma Alletta Mayer. She graduated from Aitkin High School in 1948 and worked for some time as a caregiver, secretary, and bookkeeper. She attended neighborhood activities and dances and was introduced to Richard Howard who had just returned from the Pacific Theater in WWII and was a popular player on the local Rossburg baseball team. Those Sunday afternoons at ball games, the dances, and parties at neighbors were easily some of her favorite times of her life. After a brief courtship they were married in Rossburg, Minn. in September of 1949 and began their lives together in Duluth, Minn. Work took them to different homes in the mining towns of the Mesabi Iron Range. First son Thomas was born in 1950 in Duluth, Minn. Robert and Jeffrey were born 1952 and 1955 in Hibbing, Minn. and Mark was born in 1958 in Virginia, Minn. It was here in the Iron Range era of her life that she re-connected with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the gospel that her mother had taught her and brothers and sisters. For the rest of her life, she remained a stalwart member and contributed to much of the pioneer growth of The Church in Central and Northern Minnesota, and her beloved Crosby-Brainerd Branch and Brainerd Ward congregations of the church. 

An opportune career change led to their return to Central Minnesota in 1960 when they moved to live on Lake Edward in Merrifield, Minn. where Joseph was born in 1964 and Dennis in 1968. Darlene spent much of the remainder of her life in her beloved Lake Edward home where she enjoyed being on the lake, skiing, gardening, visiting with neighbors, and gathering firewood. She could never walk by a piece of wood without picking it up to consider its value in her dining room wood stove. And mostly it was here that she captured the world around her through her favored past times of painting and drawing. Those who knew her best can look at many of her paintings and readily identify them as something or a place near her home.

Darlene was preceded in death by her parents and loving husband Richard, and is survived by her six sons and daughters-in-law: Thomas and (Donna) Howard of Crystal, Minn., Robert and (Cheryl) of Baxter, Minn., Jeffrey and (Lynne) of Brainerd, Minn., Mark and (Lisa) of Andover, Minn., Joseph and (Lynn) of Duluth, Minn., and Dennis and (Cammille) of Brainerd, Minn. She has 23 grandchildren and 54 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her three older brothers Glenn (w. Cleo) Spencer of Salt Lake City, Utah, Robert (w. Laurel) Spencer of Ogden, Utah, and James (w.Norma) Spencer of Aitkin, Minn. She is survived by her older sister Helen (h.Cliff) Carlson of Dallas, Texas and Phyllis (h.Raymond) Morris of Aitkin, Minn.

Services to celebrate her life will be at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 101 Buffalo Hills Lane, Brainerd, Minn. on Saturday August 17, 2024. There will be viewing and visiting at 2:00 p.m. followed by a funeral service at 3:00 p.m. Internment will be on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. at the Howard Family Cemetery in Kimberly Township, Aitkin County, Minn.

Arrangements are entrusted to Brenny Family Funeral Chapel, Baxter.