Ada Melvina (Goughnour) Bjerke, 95, originally of Hatton, North Dakota, died Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in West Fargo, ND, surrounded by family.
Ada was born on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1927, to Jennie (Braaten) and William McKinley Goughnour. Incidentally, his father’s name was Millard Filmore Goughnour. The youngest of six children, Ada and her family lived on a farm between Hatton and Portland. Ada was named after her father’s sister Ada, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 22.
Ada attended grade school at Viking #2, about a mile straight north of the farm. Ada said hers was the best school around, with indoor toilets, furnace, basement… other schools used oil lamps and outhouses.
A dear friend and neighbor recalled her as being an adorable little girl with jet black hair, whose tears flowed freely as she devoured raw onions like they were apples. He said you can’t be a Norwegian with that black hair and he was right. Ada was proud of her father’s Pennsylvania Dutch heritage and for years a magnet on her fridge declared “Norwegian by marriage.”
Ada said there was no place she would’ve rather grown up than on the farm where they raised a few cattle and grew wheat, corn, barley, oats. Her brothers loved riding horseback and when the horses were gone, they switched to motorcycles. Her brother Billy also became a pilot and one of her regrets is not allowing him to take her up with him. She said he was quite mischievous, and she liked to keep her feet on the ground.
Ada thought fondly of how connected her family was growing up. Her mother’s brothers, their wives and kids visited twice a week. Grandma Gunhild (Gulbrandsen) and Grandpa Eric Braaten took turns living with their children. Ada remembers Grandpa, with his red hair and mustache, coming in to warm his hands by the stove.
Ada often stayed with her dad’s sister Selma at their home on 2nd Street and 7th Avenue in Fargo. Aunt Selma and Uncle Jake had three boys and always said they wanted to adopt Ada as their daughter.
Ada and the boys used to bike around downtown Fargo, go swimming at Island Park Pool and head to the WDAY radio station on the top floor of the Black Building on Broadway to listen to live concerts. She said there was always a dinner bell at noon and they would head to Woolworths for malts. Peggy Lee played on Saturday nights. WDAY had chairs set up so you could sit up there and listen. Sometimes her brother Billy played music at the WDAY studios with his friend Alvin Alm.
Her dad didn’t allow the girls to do chores, except to bring lunch out. Ada loved talking about her dad, saying he was rarely cross and was a jack of all trades the area farmers relied on to fix things. Her mom would keep a pot of coffee on for all the people who would stop by daily, a trait which Ada picked up and perfected with the addition of her incredible brownies.
She graduated from Hatton High School in 1945 and went to Mayville Teachers College, where she lived in West Hall and thought highly of the 11 p.m. curfew.
In addition to teaching and serving as secretary for Maddock Schools, Ada worked for many years as a secretary in a clinic. When she was ready, she respectfully gave the doctor her two-week notice to retire from the role. He showed up at her door returning the notice, over which he had written “I respectfully do not accept.” Ada was an asset wherever she worked and to the many clubs and organizations she contributed to over the years, not the least of which was her treasured bowling league.
Ada’s first date with Elroy Berniel Bjerke was in 1946. They intended to go to a dance but when Elroy learned of a train derailment in Michigan, ND, he just had to see it. She loved their first date story and the rest is history.
Ada and Elroy married on January 17, 1947. They and their five children lived in Hatton, Borup, Maddock, and Georgetown, progressively following Elroy’s successful career in elevator management. They were married just shy of 75 years before his passing in November of 2021.
Ada and Elroy’s family grew to include ten grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. They were faithful members of Peace Lutheran Church.
In 1997, the couple moved to Fargo, often hosting their children and grandchildren for amazing roast and potato dinners. Elroy and Ada entered assisted living together where they treasured visits from great grandchildren and always had treats and trinkets ready to send home with kids.
Little kids adored Ada and she collected young friends at every stage of her life. Many of them stayed connected to her as adults, right through her last years in West Fargo. It was this that I admired about her the most and I’m grateful my children got to have that kind of relationship with her.
Ada is survived by her children Robert Elroy (Jennifer), Arlyn, Sharon (Richard), Jennifer (Lance), and Rodney. She was preceded in death by her husband Elroy, her parents William and Jennie Goughnour, brothers Billy, Victor and Myron, and sisters Phyllis Kost and Eunice Hjelmstad.
a few extra notes from our Ada…
Alvin called Ada a couple days before he died. He wondered how many kids she had… how she was doing… Merlene Alm (Alvin’s sister) married Ada’s cousin Eugene Braaten.
Often Ada and the Rohs brothers would bike through downtown to get to island park to go swimming. She would change down at the pool. One day she was biking home and realized she left her bathing suit behind. She rode back to find it but it was gone.
There was a big ski slide she remembers sledding down. She was about 12 or 14 at the time. They would sled then head to her aunt’s house for hot cocoa. Back then her mom’s brothers, their wives and kids visited twice a week. They were much more connected back then.
Her dad died at 63 or 64 – mom stayed for a year then moved to town. Selling the farm went smoothly, the kids didn’t fight. The boys picked Ada to administrate the estate because she lived physically close. Sis and Eunice didn’t talk to Ada that day but they quickly moved on and got back to normal. They used lawyers from Hatton.
Ada remembers when she was 10 – it was so hot she had to sit outside of their 2-story house (3 bedrooms up and 1 down) 2 parents and 6 kids. Her oldest brother was on his own by then.
They got electricity in 1941 and then came the big fridge with the ice box drawer at the bottom.
They would butcher in the fall, and kept a cooler in Hatton at the meat market.
When Ada was in 8th grade, she and her class were meeting with her teacher in the last days of school to review for final tests. Ada says her teacher was shot dead by her boyfriend. Ada heard her friend Deloris say “Freddy you don’t know what you’re doing”, then jumped out the window (6 feet high) to get help. Without the review, the tests didn’t happen and Ada said everyone understood they had flunked the year. But later, under the circumstances, they decided to pass the entire class.
Ada was very excited to have met someone with a picture of a friend of her brother Bill’s on her phone. Bill would have been 99 in 2022. This friend of his bought grain in an elevator in Langdon for many years, when Ada was living in Maddock. She is disappointed that she never visited him during that time. Bill was in the army in London during Pearl Harbor. This friend was in Pearl Harbor in the Navy.
This lady with the picture on her phone is from Landon, now living in Eventide. Her name is Phyllis Tweten. She lived a mile north of Goughnours and went to the same school. Her parents would visit Ada’s parents when they were kids.
This Navy man died just before turning. Ada says he survived the Pearl Harbor attack by hanging onto a rubber tube in the water. The Japanese soldiers drove around him but never saw him.
Once when Bill was checking into a hotel in London, he noticed on the guest register that his first cousin from Canada was at the same hotel.
Ada lost a cousin in the Air Force via plane crash and she had uncles who died in WWI.
My New Direction 