Waldeen Thomson Pearson died on Thursday, March 9, 2023, at the age of 97. Her family held a gathering of family and friends on Thursday, March 16, followed by a memorial service celebrating her life on Friday, March 17. You may visit http://www.memorialdesigners. net for this service.
Waldeen’s life was shaped by a simple but profound belief: People just need to know they are loved.
Waldeen made everyone feel like family. Shaped by a childhood in the Great Depression, she lived her life with an unshakable faith that every life has value and can be nurtured through grace and love. As she would so often say, all of us face challenges through our lifetime, but all of us need to know we all have value, and we are all loved. And she had an ability to say this in a way that felt so right.
Waldeen married Carlton Thomson, a young pastor in Texas, and they were married nearly 48 years, having served in 18 West Texas churches until Carlton’s retirement, when they settled in Lubbock, Texas.
Four years after Carlton’s death in 1995, Waldeen received an unexpected phone call from Robert Pearson, whom she had met back in the ‘40s while he was training before going off to war. That phone call rekindled a longago romance, and the two would marry in 1999, splitting time between Canyon, Texas, and Britton, South Dakota.
Waldeen embraced life with Robert. She took up hunting and fishing, and could even be spotted wearing camo, a sight that left her daughter Susan speechless. Robert’s family, Lyle and Jean, Bryan and Sandy, and their families took Waldeen in and loved her as their own and she them.
Waldeen is survived by her sister Ann (Max) Maxwell; son-in-law Bob Martindale; children, Tom (Carol) Thomson and Susan (Dan) Nazworth; and many, many grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.
She is preceded in death by her parents; sisters Evangeline Brewer and Wanda VanValkenburg, brother Glenn Dorris; spouses, Carton Hubert Thomson and Robert Donald Pearson; daughter Jane Martindale; and granddaughter, Sarah Martindale.
Per Waldeen’s request, any memorial gifts should be sent to churches of the givers choice.
Waldeen’s gift: She brought love to all she met. We have loving memories.
