Lillian (Toots) Lois Marsaa , 88, of Fargo, formerly of Leeds and Devils Lake, ND passed away Thursday, May 5, 2011 at Bethany Cares on University in Fargo, ND.

Lillian Berg was born on August 30, 1922, in Springfield Township, Towner County, to Albert and Lena (Somdalen) Berg.  She was christened in North Prairie Lutheran Church near Leeds and confirmed in 1936 at Hurricane Lake Church. She started school in a one-room country grade school, graduated from York High School in 1941, and attended Aaker's Business College in Grand Forks.

On October 16, 1942, Toots was wed to Richard Marsaa in a lively marriage that lasted for 62 years.  In 1944, she contracted infantile paralysis (polio), spent months rehabilitating at the Sister Kenny Institute and the Neurotropsy Rehab Center in California and thereafter certainly "lived above and beyond" her disabilities with a deep appreciation for life. Their only child, Donna, was born in 1945.

In 1947 Toots and Dick moved to Brinsmade, ND where she was the switch board telephone operator, wrote local news for the Benson Country Farmers Press, and was active in the church as a VBS teacher, ladies aid officer and choir member. She was a long-time member of the Brinsmade Homemakers Club.

They moved to Leeds in 1956 and worked side by side as owners of the Gamble Store and Toots was also "The Avon Lady" until they retired and became Yuma, Arizona snowbirds for the next 20 years.  In 1994, they moved to Devils Lake where Toots dedicated many hours to the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, played pinochle with passion, enjoyed the local Red Hats chapter, cherished her weekly Bible Study group, and sang with the Silver Sensations.

After her husband's death in 2005, Toots continued to live at Park Place Apartments until moving to the Heartland Care Center.  She moved to Bethany Cares Center in Fargo in May 2007 where she was actively involved in the Bethany Resident Council, the Red Hats, and Bingo marathons.

Lillian (Toots) Marsaa was loved and will be deeply missed by her family: sister, Alma Berg; daughter, Donna (Ralph) Lemar; grandchildren Randall, James (Martha), Corrina and Carmen Lemar; great-grandchildren Kelby, Justin, Brennan, Matthew, Reagan, Erin, Liam, and Lily Lemar; niece Arlene (Doug) Holtz; nephew Verle (Karen) Marsaa and her cousins.

She was preceded in death by her husband and parents.

Service of Prayer and Celebration:  Tuesday, May 10 at 5:30 PM in the Mavis Whiting Chapel, Bethany Cares, 201 S. University, Fargo, ND.

Funeral service: Wednesday, May 11, at 2:00 pm in the Leeds Lutheran Church, Leeds, ND.

Visitation:  Tuesday from 4 to 7pm at the Nelson Funeral Home in Leeds

Burial:  Leeds Lutheran Cemetery

Memorials preferred to the Leeds Lutheran Church or the Cass-Clay YWCA Women's Shelter.



Condolences:

Donna, our thoghts and prayers are with you and your family. Many good memoires of the Brinsmade and Leeds days. If you ever get to Cavalier, look us up.   Garry & Darlene Thompson



Sympathy to you on the loss of Toots.  I would think of Toots and Alma often, remembering them well from my childhood.  I don't get back to Leeds often, so hadn't seen my Godmothers in a long time, but they are not forgotten. Marla Ketchum Spicer



Donna and family,  So sorry to read the obit for Toots.  She was 88 but such a powerful personality.  Always so much fun and joking all the time.  She really enjoyed life.  She would remind me often how she babysat me back in Brinsmade in the early fifties. The timing for the prayer service and the funeral didn't work out for me with school winding down here in Devils Lake.  I would have liked to have been there.  I contacted my Mom, David and Cindy.  (Danny passed away last June.) I will continue to place flowers on Memorial Day weekend, now for both Dick and Toots.      Jim Onerheim