Clara Danielson, age 98 of Belgrade, died Friday, December 25, 2015, at the Belgrade Nursing Home.  Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, January 4, 2016, at the Hoplin-Hitchcock Funeral Chapel in Brooten.  Visitation will be one hour prior to the service.   Interment will be in Our Savior Lutheran Cemetery in Brooten.  Arrangements are with the Hoplin-Hitchcock Funeral Home in Brooten.

Clara Eleanor (Halvorson) Danielson was born March 30, 1917 to Peder and Claretta (Overby) Halvorson on the family farm in Lake Johanna Township, Pope County, Minnesota. She went to country school through the eighth grade and worked on the family farm during her youth. Clara married Benard Danielson on December 5, 1941. During their early years of their marriage, they farmed Ben's home place and eventually moved to Washington State where they worked picking fruit. In 1951, they bought a farm near Terrace where they lived and farmed for over twenty years. Finally, Ben and Clara moved to a lake home on the shores of Lake Villard in the early 1970s. Ben passed away on July 18, 1979. Clara continued to live at the lake, welcoming and enjoying time with friends and family; Clara made lasting friendships with people on the lake that spent their time there seasonally and year round.

Clara spent decades gardening and had particularly large and beautiful iris gardens. In addition to gardening, she enjoyed playing whist, watching television and listening to her vast collection of country western music albums, with a keen fondness for Randy Travis.  After Benard passed, Clara and her niece Leona began traveling together, with several car trips across the United States and Canada including trips to see her sister Helen and relatives in Wyoming, to the West Coast to visit her sister Palma, not to mention treks through Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Nashville, Dollywood and Graceland.

After many decades on the lake, Clara moved to Brooten in the fall of 2003 to live in the home that she and Leona built. Clara continued to garden. Clara spent many hours sitting in the warm sun and watching television, cheering the Vikings and Twins to victory and defeat. After several falls, Clara moved to the Belgrade Nursing Home where she enjoyed community life. Clara passed away at the age of 98 on December 25, 2015, at the Belgrade Nursing Home.

Clara is survived by one brother, Raymond (Nancy) Halvorson of White Bear Lake, MN, several nieces and nephews, and many great nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, parents, and 9 siblings: Oscar, Alma Lea, Lillian Veltikold, William, Edwin, Robert, Palmer, Palma Brusco and Helen Grundseth.