Evelyn E. Grande, age 97, of Ulen, Minnesota, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at the Viking Manor Nursing Home in Ulen.

Evelyn was born April 26, 1914 on a farm in Fossum Township to AJ and Hattie Grande. At the age of two, the Grande's moved to Ulen and lived on the east side of town. Evelyn was the fourth child of five siblings—Adeline, Harry, Everett, Pearl and Duane. Family and friends have always been important to Evelyn and she enjoyed spending time with her eleven nieces and nephews.

Evelyn graduated from the Ulen Public School in 1933. She enjoyed school and learning, maintaining an A/B grade point average. She continued on to the Minneapolis School of Beauty Culture graduating in 1940.

As a teenager, she helped her mother, Hattie do the baking for the Grande Café. She would often be found helping out in the kitchen at the restaurant on Wednesdays and Saturdays, which were their busy days. She learned some great cooking and baking skills from her mother and collected many recipes throughout the years.

As a cosmetologist, you would find her on the second floor of her brother and sister-in-law's home (Everett and Eva) in Ulen cutting, fixing and perming hair. The name of her shop was "Charm Beauty Shoppe". Within a few years, she began working at a shop in Scandia, Minnesota. While here a woman came into the shop and wanted to know if they knew of a "nice" girl that would be interested I being a companion to her. Evelyn was recommended for the job and her life-long career became that of a companion in about 1950. This position provided her with many benefits, including traveling. She worked for Ms. Thompson in Dellwood, Minnesota for 17 years, then another lady in Highland Park (suburb of St. Paul) for about two years. She then moved back to Ulen for a short time devoting her time to Mrs. Burns (mother of the owner of Burns Motors in Hawley).

Within a couple of years she followed her sister, Pearl to Colorado and continued helping women as their companions until about 1975. In the meantime, her brother, Harry had been taking care of their mother and Evelyn chose to return to Ulen to help out with her mother's care.

Evelyn is a woman of many creative talents, including cooking, baking, sewing, drawing, hat and decorative boxes and shelling. She has made many beautiful things over the years, which have become family treasures. She won blue ribbons at the Minnesota State Fair for her beautiful purses. But, her passion has been her shells. A benefit of being a companion – she would spend her winters on the Gulf of Mexico at Sanibel Island and Captiva. She had time to shell and would often find her on the beach with her buckets filling them with shells. She has made many beautiful items with her shells, including mirrors, matchboxes, decorative containers, Christmas items, or simply a jar of shells would adorn her home. Evelyn was a compassionate caring woman who gave her life to help others throughout her lifetime.

Evelyn is survived by her brother, Duane (Jody) Grande of Minneapolis, MN; her nieces, Judy (Joel) Levitt of Denver, CO, Deborah (Mike) Schaefer of Colby, WI, Kathleen (Lorne) Rosand of Maplewood, MN; her nephews, Jerald, (Genevieve) of Plymouth, MN, Darrel (Lorie) of Moorhead, MN, Bruce (Lilly) of AZ, Bradley of Golden, CO, Christopher of Golden Valley, MN, Stephen of Minnetonka, MN and Timothy (Batyah) of Marshfield, WI.

She is preceded in death by her parents, AJ and Hattie Grande; her sisters, Adeline and Pearl; her brothers, Harry and Everett; her sisters-in-law, Eva and Corrine; brothers-in-law, Erling and Louis and her nieces, Janice and Sharon.

Funeral Services were held on Monday, May 9, 2011 at 11:00 AM in Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Ulen. Visitation was one hour before services at the church on Monday. Officiating was Pastor Steve Dahl with Susan Green serving as organist and Steve Lunde serving as vocalist. Pallbearers were Christopher Grahn, Stephen Grande, Christopher Grande, Timothy Grande, Stephen Grande and Lorne Rosand.

Burial was in West Bethlehem Lutheran Cemetery, Ulen.