Covenant News

Services Saturday for Covenant Author Adaline Bjorkman

NORTHBROOK, IL (January 15, 2002) - Services will be 2 p.m. Saturday at Winnetka Covenant Church for Adaline Bjorkman, 85, a Covenant author and former Evangelical Covenant Church executive board member.

Bjorkman died Monday at Glenbrook Hospital in Northbrook. A private family committal service will be held in Hinsdale later this week.

A longtime member of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Hinsdale, Illinois, Bjorkman had more recently been attending Winnetka Covenant Church in Wilmette, where she was a member for nine years. She touched the lives of Covenanters in a number of ways, especially with her writing.

Bjorkman authored the book While It Was Still Dark: One Person's Pilgrimage through Grief, first published by Covenant Press in 1978 and reprinted in 1993. The journal-style book was written after Bjorkman lost her second husband.

Bjorkman was the first woman to serve on the Covenant executive board, elected in 1977. She served a three-year term, during which she also served as secretary of the board while the late A. Harold Anderson served as chair. She also served as a liaison to the Covenant's Board of Publication under former President Milton Engebretson.

In 1986 she recommended and supported a project that later became the Covenant Women's History Commission. She wrote "Where Have All The Women Gone?" as a statement to Covenant Women to encourage the start of the commission.

Bjorkman was born January 16, 1916, on a farm in South Dakota. In her memoirs, she stated that her family belonged to a country Methodist church. She became a Christian at age 10 and her faith was an integral part of her life. She attended Wessington Springs Junior College in Wessington Springs, South Dakota. She became a country schoolteacher following graduation, teaching children from first through eighth grades. She continued her undergraduate education at the University of South Dakota. In her life memoirs she states that her life was shaped by a Christian community that took an interest in her.

During World War II, she married her college sweetheart, 28-year-old Lt. Albert Guyer, who died while fighting in Europe. Bjorkman returned to school, heading to National Louis University in Evanston, Illinois. She attended the Evangelical Covenant Church in Evanston while teaching pre-school.

She became a teacher in the Hinsdale School District and began attending the Evangelical Covenant Church in Hinsdale. There, she met Art Bjorkman, father of an eight-year-old son named Glenn. They were married soon after and had two children. They spent 22 years together before Art died. She said she was grateful for the compassion of Rev. John Wiens at the Hinsdale church, where she eventually served as an outreach visitor for 10 years. She also served on the Widowed Person's Board for the American Association of Retired People (AARP) and spoke at national AARP events. She later served on the ECC Board of Christian Education.

Besides authoring books, Bjorkman conducted workshops, taught creative writing and life story writing and wrote stories for children. She was a featured author of Faith@Work Magazine, which can be found on the Internet at www.faithatwork.com.

(Editor's note: Appreciation is expressed to Eloise Nelson, who provided some of the material for this notice.)

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