Virginia “Ginny” Mclarnan

Virginia (Ginny) Bristol McLarnan died in her sleep January 25, 2023 at the Eventide Care

Center in Moorhead 11 days prior to her 94th birthday. She was content in her later years at

Eventide despite declining health.

Ginny was born February 5, 1929 in Fargo. Her parents were William Turner Bristol and Evelyn

Weddell who divorced when Ginny and her brother Robert were young, resulting in Ginny and

Robert living weekdays in a Fargo foster home while Evelyn worked. Later Evelyn married Cy

Rufer who had a daughter about Ginny’s age and the family lived in Moorhead. A block away

was the First Congregational Church on 8th Street South, a place of quiet refuge in her teens

and a source of friendships, faith and service to others later in life. She attended the church from

1937 through the rest of her life.

An important influence was her great uncle, Bill Weddell. He paid the tuition for her nursing

education at the University of Minnesota. He left her his Becker County lake cabin in 1962 that

is the anchor of family connections for her children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren. She

called it her favorite place in the world.

After graduating with a degree in nursing and public health she married Rod McLarnan, also

from Moorhead, in 1951. They felt a pull from their hometown and moved there with three

children in 1958. After 2 more children, Ginny became a full time mom. Rod and Ginny

divorced in 1986 but continued to attend family gatherings, grandkid school and sports events

and summer holidays at the lake cabin.

Caring for others was her nature. She drove cancer patients to treatment, helped refugee

families adjust to a new life and volunteered twice at an orphanage in Oaxaca Mexico. She

served on the Clay County Welfare Board and was active in P.E.O and her church. She

returned to nursing at age 52 at Clay County Public Health making home visits to young

mothers. She retired at 62, no longer wanting to navigate over snow drifts and icy parking

lots carrying a baby scale and other equipment.

She will be missed by her family and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, brother

Robert and son-in- law Jeff Amerman. She is survived by her children Timothy McLarnan (Anne)

Terrance McLarnan (Karin), Nancy Amerman (Jon Otto), Susan Berglund (Chris), Thomas

McLarnan (Jennifer), 14 grandchildren, and 10 great- grandchildren. The family will feel her

presence on the porch at the lake cabin.

Funeral service, assisted by Wright Funeral Home, at First Congregational Church 406 8th

Street February 4, 2023 with gathering at 12:30 and service at 1:30. Memorial preferred to the

First Congregational Church or Churches United for the Homeless in Moorhead.