Sheldon Lee Nascene

Sheldon Nascene of Pine City passed away peacefully surrounded by family on October 15, 2010, after a struggle with cancer. Born April 23, 1935 in Cambridge, he grew up in the Maple Ridge area and was baptized and confirmed at Salem Lutheran Church in Dalbo. He attended country elementary school and high school in Braham where he excelled in football basketball, and track. He played baseball for many years for the Braham town ball team that won the Class B Minnesota State Amateur Championships in 1957 & 1963. He attended Augsburg College where he played football and basketball, and continued as a fan of sports his entire life. Sheldon married LaVonne Carlson August 3, 1954. He started his banking career at First National Bank of Minneapolis and soon became a national bank examiner for the OCC, traveling an extensive five state area including stints to Dallas and Washington DC. In 1965 at age thirty he purchased the Farmers State Bank of Winger and in 1969 became co-owner of the First National Bank of Pine City. In 1973 the family moved to Pine City. Sheldon later owned banks in Carlos and Waubun. An active member of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Pine City, he spearheaded the building committee’s accomplishments in building the new church in 1981. He was also busy with church council, choir, men’s Bible study, and very active and blessed with the Cursillo community. Surviving prostate cancer in 1996, Sheldon developed an appreciation and exciting zest for life; there was hardly a person since, that he hasn’t hugged. Later that year he joined the Swanson and Olson Funeral Chapels in Pine City and Rush City. He didn’t call it work as he loved associating, connecting, planning and being with that team and his duties grew to include doing visitations, selling pre-need insurance, leading prayers, and even singing in Swedish at services. He also had the amazing ability of remembering names and faces and with his ability to talk to anyone at anytime about anything, he created an amazing number of friends. Sheldon dearly loved his family and received special joy from his grandchildren. One hundred percent Swedish, Sheldon and LaVonne made three visits to Sweden, and of course he was a fervent Lutefisk lover. In the later years, he developed a tremendous love for Swedish fiddle music which eventually led to taking lessons at the American Swedish Institute. No lutefisk dinner or Swedish music concert was too far away for Sheldon to attend. Sheldon is survived by his wife of 56 years LaVonne Nascene, and children Kevin (LeeAnn) Nascene of Lindstrom, Sheryl Nascene of Cambridge, Kyle (Barbara) Nascene of Pine City and Kim (Carmela) Nascene of Shakopee;grandchildren David (Shannon) Nascene of Edina, Paul Nascene of East Grand Forks, Rachel (Luke) Ellis of Stillwater, Tiffany Heisler, Carissa and Kylie Nascene, Westin, Sierra and Landon Nascene; great grandchildren Laurel and Sophie Nascene and Grant Ellis. He was preceded in death by his parents Henning and Frances Nascene and sister Muriel Nascene. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday (10/19/10) at the Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Pine City with Rev. Vicki VanderVegt, Rev. Ron Boettner and Rev. Bill Pearson officiating. A time of visitation and reviewal is scheduled for Monday evening from 4-7 p.m. at the Swanson Funeral Chapel in Pine City and 1 hr prior to the service on Tuesday at church. The interment will be in the Hilltop Cemetery in Pine City.