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Ardeth "Ardie" Kay Stevens

Bergen, ND, USA

November 18, 1950 - January 31, 2021

Nov 18, 1950 - Jan 31, 2021

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Ardeth (Ardie) Kay Stevens, 70, of Bergen, North Dakota, passed away on January 31st, 2021, from complications during her cancer treatment.

Ardie was born on November 18th, 1950, to Alma and Kenneth Stevens in Minot, ND. After graduating from Velva High School in 1968, she went on to study education at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. In 1970, she studied abroad in Norway, where she met her future husband, James Ryan. She returned to North Dakota, finished her degree, and began working in education and helping on the family farm. In 1976, she joined James in California where they worked as apprentices at Alan Chadwick’s Covella Garden Project.

They were married in June of 1978 on her family farm, where they started their adventures in farming. Soon they moved to the nearby farm of her Aunt Luella Peterson, where they raised their two children while continuing to dairy farm.

Ardie taught at Head Start in Towner, taught music in Karlsruhe, and continued to substitute teach in area schools when the kids were young. In 1992, she switched fields and went to work as a CNA at the Velva nursing home for 13 years. Later, she earned her LPN and took a job as the nurse for Trinity Hospital’s Child and Adolescent Partial Hospitalization program (CAPH)--a position that perfectly combined her interests in working with children in education, nursing, and mental health--where she stayed for 12 years, up until her retirement in January of 2020.

Ardie found great joy in spending time with family and being on the family farms. Interested in language, astronomy, the brain, and more, she was an avid reader and a lifelong learner. She was most likely to be found curled up with a book and a crossword, public radio on in the background, animal by her side.

Traditions were of great importance to her, such as those of her Norwegian heritage, which she kept alive in many ways: through music, language, and of course food. She loved to give gifts and make each occasion more special and always did so with her personal touch, perhaps with a limerick, crafted gift, or homemade treat, and cherished all those she received, chosen with the same care.

Talented in music, she reveled opportunities to play or be in its presence. She could count the piano, guitar, and accordion among her many skills, and was the organist for the Balfour Lutheran Church for many years until its closure. And having always wanted to be in a band, she finally had the opportunity when a community band formed in Velva--even teaching herself a new instrument, the bass clarinet, just so she could join (and practicing outside so as not to disturb her young children).

She is preceded in death by her parents, Kenneth and Alma. She is survived by her husband, James Ryan, her children, Steffen Ryan, and Anneli (Mason Kendall) Ryan, her brothers Ron (Diane) Stevens, Don (Candyce Dostert) Stevens, and Corey Stevens, and her nephews Aaron, Alex, Jens, and Jules Stevens.

A memorial for Ardie is planned for Saturday, June 12th, 1:30 p.m., at the Norway Lutheran Church (north of Karlsruhe) when those who loved her so much can come together to celebrate her life as we know she would have wanted. Should friends desire, memorial contributions can be made to the organizations you feel would best honor her memory.

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