Pearl Michelson

Pearl L. Michelson, age 87, passed away peacefully, on Saturday, January 16, 2021 at Getty Street Assisted Living in Sauk Centre, Minnesota.

At Pearl’s request, no services will be held.

Pearl Loraine Michelson was born in Bemidji, Minnesota in January of 1933 to Waino and Alfhild Michelson. She attended Aitkin County District 28 country schools through the eighth grade. She then attended Little Falls High School, graduating in 1951. She worked that summer in Grand Rapids, then in Minneapolis. Pearl joined the U.S. Air Force and graduated as an honor student, top of her class, from Communications School F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. She received an Honorable Discharge in May of 1954. On January 20, 1954, she married Francisco Whipple. They moved to Long Island the year of the world’s fair. Pearl was a member of the Artist’s Sketchbook Club and exhibited her pen and ink sketches and oil paintings at their shows on Long Island. She won first prize for the package for Deer River wild rice in 1963.

Pearl worked in the accounting department of Famous Cottons, maker of Caper Mates and Caper Knits, for two years. Because of her Air Force experience, she got a job purchasing and production scheduling for a subcontractor in the aerospace industry, working there for 14 years. She then bought duplexes near her son Jim and family in Florida and moved there. Her son handled the sale of the duplexes. When she retired in 1998 to her tree farm in Minnesota, she pursued her hobbies of pen and ink sketching, oil painting, calligraphy, gardening, and enjoying wildlife.

Pearl was a long-time member of Calvary Bible Fellowship and the Jacobson Charitable Civic Club.

Preceded in death by her parents and son David.

Pearl is survived by her son, Jim (Debbie) Whipple; daughter, Joi (Bob) Nast; grandchildren and great-grandchildren.