Bert Hovdestad

On her mother’s 31st birthday, July 17, 1958, Roberta Mariet was born to Robert and Ann Prosby Hovdestad of Felton, Minn. Bert was the youngest of six children. On March 9, 2017, at age 58, she died suddenly in her Moorhead home after a brief illness.

A memorial gathering will be held from 5-7 p.m., with a prayer service at 7 p.m., on Friday, March 17, at Wright Funeral Home in Moorhead, Minn. The Mass of Christian Burial will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, March 18, at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Moorhead. Interment will be in Wild Rose Cemetery in Georgetown, Minn.

Bert was fiercely independent, along with being a prolific book reader, talented flower designer, world traveler Australia, Asia, North America, South America, and Europe, Toastmaster extraordinaire in which she earned many awards, loving wife, thoughtful daughter, spontaneous sister, and adored aunt.

She was an adventurer: sailing in a clipper ship, cruising oceans, sky diving, ballooning, traveling with nieces and nephews, donating blood and platelets, and volunteering at the Heritage Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead.

She married Arlyn Lang on April 1, 1989, on stage at the Fargo Theater. The guests were assured that it was not an April Fool’s joke.

Bert grew up in rural Felton, Minn., and graduated from Glyndon-Felton High School, attended one year at Moorhead State and then graduated from Moorhead Technical College with a computer programming degree in which she aced the final. She worked all over the Fargo-Moorhead-Dilworth area: D & E Mart; KVOX Radio where she met the love of her life; KXJB TV; Shotwell Floral; Wild Birds Unlimited 1996-2000 area teachers and children might remember her as The Butterfly Lady; Bargains Galore, and most recently Haga Kommer, Ltd.

She is survived by her husband Arlyn Lang; her mother Ann Hovdestad of Fargo, ND; along with five siblings: Diane Larry Christeson of Graceville, MN; Carol Dennis Bollinger Sellent of West Fargo, ND; Joyce Donald Burnham of Pelican Rapids, MN; Anthony Lori Hovdestad of Moorhead, MN, Andrea Scott Sonstegard of Detroit Lakes, MN; and Lang family members: Genie Lang of Bismarck, ND; Bernadine Roger Kuhn of Owatonna, MN; Dora Bill Roth of Spring, TX; Erica Al Wangler of Bismarck, ND; and Wally Susan Lang of Larimore, ND. She is also survived by numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins who were very special to her.

She is preceded in death by her father Robert Hovdestad, her mother- and father-in-law Ted and Louise Lang; brothers-in-law Edward J. Sellent, James Drewicke, and Myrle Genie Lang, along with nephews Thomas Drewicke and John Kuhn.