Pearl McDowall

It is with great sadness, but yet with joy as we know mom will experience the resurrection of our Lord, our family imparts the news that Pearl McDowall died Christmas morning, December 25, 2016, two months short of her 100th birthday. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 am Friday, December 30, at House of Prayer Lutheran Church, 1470 S Washington St., Bismarck, with Rev. Dave Swonger officiating. A prayer service will be held at 5:30 pm Thursday, December 29, at Eastgate Funeral Service, 2302 E. Divide Ave., Bismarck. Inurnment will be held at Mandan Union Cemetery. Pearl was born February 21, 1917, to Peter and Connie (Andersen) Christensen in Raleigh, ND. She grew up on the farms her father had in the Raleigh and Lark ND area, the middle child of six. She married Donald McDowall in Sidney, MT, in 1941. Pearl and Donald farmed in the Lark, ND, area, and then relocated to Almont, ND. In Almont they owned a tavern and later a grocery store. They moved to Garrison, ND, in 1956, and in 1957, to Stanley. They then moved to Mandan, ND, where Pearl lived either in Mandan or Bismarck the remainder of her life. Pearl and Donald had four children: Gary, Sandra, Rex, and Lila. Donald died suddenly of a heart attack in 1962. Pearl found herself a young widow with four children aged from the oldest at 20 and the youngest 13. She somehow found a way to finish raising the children and holding the family together with her unconditional love and devotion to them. She was employed at some retail stores but worked the longest as a desk clerk at the Lewis and Clark Hotel in Mandan. Because Pearl always worked on holidays, the tradition with her children and their families developed that Christmas Eve was always spent together. After taking swimming lessons and learning to swim in her 60s, she would swim 20 laps three times a week at the Bismarck YMCA well past her 80th birthday. Pearl also began oil painting later in life. Her children and other relatives have those special treasures hanging in their homes. Her paintings over the years also were selected for special recognition such as being selected to hang in the State Capitol building in Bismarck. Pearl also enjoyed her time she spent playing Bridge. She loved to swim while she was visiting her daughter and son-in-law, Sandi and Rich Brockbank, at their cabin on Flathead Lake in MT, except she always managed to get swimmers itch. She also loved her Sunday afternoons at her son, Rex’s home, playing Skipo and having a drink with her granddaughter, Amy. Pearl and her youngest child, Lila, lived together after the rest of the children had left home and from that a special relationship developed that lasted until Pearl’s death. While Lila was Pearl’s baby, Lila’s care of Pearl in these last years has been something the rest of the families owe her a heartfelt thank you for. Pearl is survived by three of her children, Sandra (Rich) Brockbank, Rex (Joyce) McDowall, and Lila (Dan) Steffes; two siblings, Dorothy Moser and Dan Christensen; 14 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald; one son, Gary; one grandson, Mark McDowall; three siblings, Clyde Christensen, Art Christensen, and Shirley Roth; and her parents, Peter and Constance Christensen.