Carmen Dickinson, age 96, of New Rockford, ND, died Wednesday, April 25, 2012, at Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd in New Rockford, ND.

Carmen Dickinson was born December 20, 1915, near Sheyenne, ND, the daughter of Myrtle (Seastrand) Ostby and Bernhardt Ostby. She graduated from Sheyenne High School and from NDSU with a teaching degree. Carmen met Leonard E. (Dick) Dickinson while they were both teaching at Sheyenne and they were married in Grace Lutheran Church on January 13, 1939. Carmen and Dick and their children moved to Loudonville, Ohio, and then to Cleveland and on to Minneapolis where they raised their three sons. In 1972, Dick retired from Ernst and Ernst, a public accounting firm, and Carmen and Dick moved to Bellevue, Washington, a few blocks from Carmen's sister Doris.

Later they moved to Phoenix and then, in order to be near their son Robert and his family, to Tucson, Arizona, where Dick died in 1996. In 2000, Carmen moved to Gainesville, Florida, 2 blocks from her grandson Richard and his family, and in 2003, to Minneapolis, near her son Timothy. In 2006, Carmen returned home to North Dakota, moving to the Heritage House in New Rockford.

Carmen and Dick were world travelers. When the boys were young, the family drove to Yellowstone and several times to the East Coast and the West Coast. Carmen favored the wild places in the Appalachian Mountains, in the forests of New England, Cape Cod, the Rocky Mountains, and the Redwood forests. She followed Dick's passion for history to the Civil War battlefields and the old cities of Boston, New York and Washington.

When the boys were grown, Carmen and Dick flew to Europe several times, visiting from the British Isles in the West to Yugoslavia in the East, and from Norway to Greece. Carmen's favorite trip was flying west to the Far East to experience Christmas in Fiji.

Wherever Carmen lived, she was active in the neighborhood; from Cub Scout den mother, to bridge clubs, to tutoring new immigrants.

Carmen was a Sheyenne Lutheran married to a Velva Methodist. Eventually they compromised and worshiped for many years at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. After Dick retired, the Lutheran side won out and Carmen was active in Lutheran churches in Belleview, Phoenix, Tucson, and back home in Sheyenne.

Carmen is survived by three sons; Robert (Rong Fu) Dickinson, Austin TX, David (Lindsay) Dickinson, Tucson AZ, Timothy (Terri Tacheny) Dickinson, Saint Paul MN; three grandchildren; Scott (Beth) Dickinson, Richard (Dagmar) Dickinson, and Paul Dickinson; four great-grandchildren, Lacy Dickinson, Brynn Dickinson, Leonard Dickinson and Patrick Dickinson.

Carmen was preceded in death by her husband, Leonard, her parents, two brothers, Wayne Ostby and Leland Ostby, a sister Doris (Ostby) Besselievre, as well as a brother-in-law, Ed Besselievre; and a sister-in-law, Geraldine (Tweed) Ostby.

FUNERAL SERVICE: Grace Lutheran Church, Sheyenne, ND

DATE AND TIME: Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 2:00 PM

INTERMENT: Riverside Cemetery, Sheyenne, ND