Obituary of Karlene Bern

Karlene Brant Bern, 85 years old, of Great Falls passed away on March 10th, 2025. Karlene was born in Coos Bay (then Marshfield) Oregon on November 18, 1939, to parents Arthur and Edith Brant. She attended local schools and graduated from Marshfield Highschool in 1958. Karlene had a lifelong passion for the youth ministry. She attended Pacific Lutheran University for two years and then served as an organist, Parish worker and youth Director beginning at Grace Lutheran in Fresno CA and then served at St. James Lutheran churches in three states. When the family moved to Great Falls, Karlene worked for Lutheran Social Services for 16 years. Throughout her life she served as a mentor to many. Her 16 years at Lutheran Social Services brought out the exceptional skills of communication and encouragement that she used to comfort and give hope to all those who came for help. She would meet, and in 1963 marry, her future husband in San Leandro CA where Gene was on the church council and holding the youth group together until Karlene, the new director arrived. She sang in the choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University and the choirs in each church we were members of during her sixty-one plus years of marriage. Karlene loved to entertain in our homes many times with 30-40 guests. She developed a love of hunting and fishing, floating the Missouri river, hiking the fields watching our dogs work and harvesting her own deer and rainbow trout. Karlene’s greatest devotion was raising her children Deborah & David, teaching them to make Swedish scorps and memorizing a Swedish prayer of thanksgiving in Swedish language. Karlene was proceeded in Death by her parents, Arthur Brandt (when she was age 3) and Edith Brandt Sundquist and sister Vivian Brandt Hooker. She is survived by her husband Eugene Bern, Daughter Deborah Bern, Son and daughter-in-law David and Marion Bern all the Great Falls. Granddaughter’s; Rebecca Thompson, of Great Falls MT; Jeanee’ Vilja of Tacoma WA; and Sky Losleben, of Glasgow MT. She also has several nieces and nephews in Oregon. A celebration of life will be held at Faith Lutheran Church, 1300 Ferguson Drive, Great Falls, MT Saturday March 29th, 2025, at 11:00AM.