Delores Sampson

Delores Erickson Sampson died March 15, 2022, at Touchmark in Bismarck.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Monday, March 21 at Parkway Funeral Services, 2330 Tyler Parkway, Bismarck.

Visitation will be held from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Sunday, March 20 at Parkway Funeral Service with a prayer service starting at 4:00.

Interment will be at Edmore City Cemetery in the spring.

Delores LaVonne (Babe) was born to Anton and Geline Erickson of Starkweather, ND, in 1925.  She was baptized and confirmed in Trinity Lutheran Church there.  The youngest daughter of seven children, she graduated from Starkweather High School and then attended Minot State Teacher’s College where she earned her 60-hour teaching certificate. She then taught for a year and a half at Victoria Township School until in 1944 she married James Ole Sampson of Edmore, ND. After Ole completed his military service, they farmed south of Edmore for thirty-three years and raised four daughters there. 

During the years on the farm, Delores completed her two-year provisional license at Minot State and eventually her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in education at the University of North Dakota.  She taught 5^th grade in Edmore from 1958 to 1971.  She then went on to teach for the New School of Behavioral Studies at the University of North Dakota, serving as the Director of the North Dakota Small Schools Teacher Learning Center, for about 17 years.  Simultaneously, she also was the Early Childhood Education Resource Colleague for UND, consulting with companion schools in Great Falls, MT, Zuni, NM, Bellingham, WA, and Fort Yates, ND. 

Delores was always active in her community, regardless of where she lived.  In Edmore, she taught Sunday school at Concordia Lutheran Church.  In addition, she was active in Concordia’s Ladies Aid and in later years at Living Word Lutheran Church and the Community Church in Apache Wells.  In Mesa, AZ, where she lived after her retirement, she loved volunteering at the local Apache Wells library, helping to develop and establish a new library for that community.  She was also active on the board of the Nine-Hole Swingers, her golf league in Apache Wells.

For fun over the years, Delores loved to call square dances at the local dances; to direct her team in the Edmore women’s curling club; to complete her various beautiful hand stitched projects; to go golfing and water exercising with her friends; and to play her electric keyboard for family and friends, who sang along. She also enjoyed playing cards and visiting with good friends. But her favorite pastime was probably entertaining friends and family.  She was the consummate cook and hostess.

Thankful for her loving care and for sharing her life are her daughters and sons-in-law, SuEllen and Richard Shaw (Green Valley, AZ), Cindy Balliet (Bismarck, ND), Sheila and Arnie Link (Mandan, ND), and Karen and Ron Berget (Alexandria, MN); eight grandchildren; twenty great grandchildren; her brother and sister-in-law, Jerry and Jan Erickson (Chicago, IL) as well as many nieces and nephews.

Preceding Delores in death were her husband James Ole Sampson, her parents Anton and Geline Erickson; her three sisters, Doris Nielsen, Ione Ford, and Orella Hovland; two brothers, Orris and Boyd Erickson; her two infant daughters, Sandra Oleen and Sara Roxanne; one granddaughter, Kora Link Penitani, and her son-in-law Wayne Balliet.