Harriet Y. Carlson was born September 16, 1927 in Minnesota to parents Ernest W. and Effie Josephine Carlson.  She died May 13, 2016 at Bethesda Nursing Home at the age of 88 years, 7 months and 27 days.

Harriet moved to the Beresford area with her family as an infant.  She attended Newdale and Marshalltown rural schools and graduated from Beresford High School in 1945.  She worked for a time in Sioux Falls and then began working at the Corner Drug Store in Beresford where she met her future husband, Ernie Carlson.  They were married April 28, 1947. She and Ernie farmed, raised sheep and other livestock for forty years and moved into Beresford in 1989, where she lived until the current time .  She began working at the Gamble Store in 1970 and later the Coast to Coast and Ace Hardware Stores.  Harriet loved her coworkers and the customers she got to help and interact with.

Harriet was a member of Dalesburg Baptist Church where she sang in the church choir and was a Sunday school and Vacation Bible school teacher and an active member of the Ladies Aid until she entered the nursing home .  Her hobbies and interests included crocheting, baking and cooking.  She was known to make excellent pie and great cinnamon rolls. She and Ernie liked to travel and spent many winters with family in California and Arizona, Oregon and Virginia .  Her greatest joy in life was being with her family.

She was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers, Lester, Don and Edward; and her sister Eileen.

Harriet is survived by her husband Ernie, Beresford; daughter Diane Tollefson and husband Ron, Alexandria, VA; son Doug Carlson and special friend Mary Konrad, Lake Oswego, OR; three grandchildren, Kevin Tollefson and Greg Tollefson, both of Virginia and Christine Tollefson and husband Christopher Nehls, Washington, DC; great granddaughter Astrid Nehls; brother Roger Carlson and wife Karen, Kearney, NE; four sisters-in-law, Carol Carlson and Lorraine Carlson, both of Beresford and Isabel Johnson of Missouri and Isabel Carlson of Texas ; and many other relatives and friends.