A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Tuesday, June 4, 2024 at 1:00 PM, with a rosary being prayed that morning at 11:45AM, with visitation to follow until the start of the mass. Burial will immediately follow at the Christ the King Catholic Cemetery in Browerville. 

Marjorie Iten, 101, of Browerville, passed away peacefully on June 1, 2024, at the Meadow Place Assisted Living in Long Prairie. Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, 1:00 p.m., at Christ the King Catholic Church in Browerville with Fr. Tom Becker officiating.  Burial will be held at Christ the King Catholic Cemetery, Browerville.

Marge was born July 30, 1922, in Winona, Minnesota to Raymond & Coletta (Nepper) Heaser.  She was raised in Aitkin and attended St. Lukes in Duluth for nurses training.  

Grandma Iten (Marge) was always ahead of her time. She grew up on her parents’ farm during the Great Depression and took to the woods to hunt to help feed her family. She once told me that she shot two ducks in one shot with her pellet rifle. She never wasted a thing and was a magical repurposer. Later in life she was known for her craftsmanship, sewing booties for her son’s Iditarod dog team and spending her spare time sewing quilts for Project Linus to donate to children in need. Not only did she never waste an item, she also never wasted a minute and could always be found making something out of nothing. She was a lifetime gardener and enjoyed growing and preserving food for her family. 

Marge led a full life that is hard to condense into a few paragraphs. She joined the Army Nurse Corps during World War 2 to serve along with her brothers in the military. She traveled across the country on the Army Corps train, witnessing one of the first television sets and coming home with hilarious stories of traveling with the GI’s. After the war she moved to Alaska where she met and married her first husband Robert Steinbrecher in 1949. She earned her pilot’s license with her GI bill and became the first female commercial pilot in Alaska, passing her final rating while nine months pregnant with her first child, Jan. 

Marge loved Alaska and had many adventures hunting, fishing and flying in her time there. After her husband Robert passed, she moved back to Minnesota with Jan and Ed. There she married her second husband Jerry Iten in 1959 and had Mark. She continued her legacy as a nurse for years in Minnesota and was a caring member of her extended families. She continued to live her values and traveled and camped frequently with her children. 

One of Marge’s defining attributes was her unwavering Faith. She leaned on her Catholic Faith while battling breast cancer and surviving, twice. Later in life she was able to travel to the Holy Lands where she experienced the miraculous presence of the Virgin Mary. She told me that faith is the one thing that you can lean on later in life, and she had her Faith throughout her life. 

Her Alaskan legacy lives on with her son Ed’s family. Marge made the trip north to be part of their lives and participate in the subsistence lifestyle each year until she was unable to. She is remembered fondly by all her relatives as someone who did what she wanted to, regardless of what anyone said, and she loved a good game of cards. 

Marge is preceded in death by her parents, Raymond & Coletta Heaser, husband Robert Steinbrecher, husband Jerry Iten, siblings:  Al Heaser, Bob Heaser, Veronica Inman, Marie Jones and Ray Heaser Jr.  She is survived by her children:  Janice O’Hara, Ed (Ruth) Iten, & Mark Iten; grandchildren Kate Iten & Quinn Iten; great grandchildren Uriah Rae & Jebediah Rae; sisters-in-law, Dee Iten & Rosie Iten.