Angela Ilene Henriksen

In memory of Angela Ilene (Gunderson) Henriksen (1946-2024)

Angela (Gunderson) Henriksen grew up on a farm in the western lee and hills of the Couteau de Prairie in South Dakota. She became a caregiver at a very early age. She could drive a tractor and put up hay. She was a markswoman of regard. She loved cats, Ella Fitzgerald and folk song.

Following her graduation from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion, she pursued careers as a word crofter and artist. She began as a reporter at the Sioux City Journal. She moved to Saint Paul and became the Editor for the Surgery Department at the University of Minnesota for 20 years, editing the first text on Organ Transplantation among other volumes, working with the transplant team headed by Drs John Najarian and Richard Simmons. Her name appears multiple times at the Library of Congress, as Editor of note. She continued her public career as the written face of the Shiely Company/ Aggregate Industries, for nearly 20 more years, before pursuing her arts full time.

During all this time she had privately maintained her disciplines as an author, editor, researcher and artist. She created “Measuring the Dead” as a novel (and screen play at the request of independent producers). She wrote countless smaller pieces and essays, and at her passing was preparing “Dustbowl Sheriff” for publication, a novel set in the 1930s on the hills and lakes of her heritage. She founded Wordcrofters, an editorial services firm. She was a founding member of Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota and of Second Wave. Her work was hung in countless galleries and exhibits throughout the region.

She worked with her husband, Gene, to build a house, high above the Mississippi in Saint Paul, where they raised their daughter Kelly Cathryn Marie and lived for 35 years. For years they hosted the Annual Bloodliners Deck Picnic at their home, a gathering of John Stewart enthusiasts from across the country. She is survived by Gene and Kelly and her grandchildren Sole’nisa Aminah Warren, Selah Rielle Henriksen-Mason, and Asha Chelan Henriksen-Mason.

She passed gently in the arms of her family.

A Celebration of Life and Memorium will be held at 10:00 am on November 1st at the Saint Anthony Park United Church of Christ, 2129 Commonwealth Avenue. in Saint Paul. A reception will follow.