Covenant News

Memorial Service Held for Florence Luiten

GOLDEN VALLEY, MN (May 5, 2004) - A memorial service was held today (Wednesday) at Covenant Village of Golden Valley for Florence Luiten, the widow of retired Evangelical Covenant Church pastor Vernon Luiten.

Luiten died last Saturday at Colonial Acres in Golden Valley, said Covenant Village of Golden Valley chaplain John Satterberg. She was 84 years old at the time of her death, having lived at Covenant Village since 1993.

Born July 31, 1919, near Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, Luiten was the last of 10 children. She weighed only three pounds at birth so she was kept warm in a shoebox on the warmer of a wood stove. Following high school graduation, Florence attended St. Paul Bible Institute for three years and worked as a nanny to finance her schooling. In 1941 she traveled to New York City and enrolled in Booth Memorial School of Nursing, graduating in 1942 with her LPN certificate.

On June 5, 1943, Florence married Vernon Luiten, a recent graduate of Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. They began their ministry at Woodville Chapel near Zumbrota, Minnesota. Over 40 years they served Covenant churches in Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan. Their ministry also included serving for 12 years at Covenant Mountain Mission in Virginia. In her retirement years, Luiten used her talents as a seamstress and as a prayer warrior and became a blessing to many more outside of pastoral ministry.

Luiten is preceded in death by her husband of 52 years. Three children, Ruth, Dorothy and Gary, seven grandchildren and a host of great-grandchildren survive her.

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