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Margaret Vegge has recently decided to “retire” from the church choir at Grace Lutheran Church in Luverne, MN.  For most people, this isn’t newsworthy, but not many people have sung in the same church choir for over 78 years. 

In 1930, fifteen-year-old Margaret joined the church choir as an alto singer at the Old Immanuel Lutheran Church, in Luverne, MN.  In 1951, Immanuel Lutheran and Our Savior’s Lutheran merged and became Grace Lutheran Church where Margaret sang until a short time ago.  She comes from a very musical family; her father loved music and he used to play the accordion.  At one time, there were three Vegges singing in the church choir; besides Margaret there were her two brothers, Carl and Trygve.  According to Margaret, she’s not exceptional but she can sing and play the piano a bit.   The Vegge family has always been a singing family; they have sung a lot of Norwegian songs, and they used to say a lot of Norwegian prayers, at home, when she was growing up.   To this day, when the Vegges get together, they still sing Norwegian songs at weddings and family gatherings. 

She has lost count now, but thinks she’s been through 10 to 15 choir directors and she practiced every Wednesday night for over 78 years.  She can name most of the directors she’s had over the years, and has fond memories of all of them.  When the current choir director goes through “old” music to find something different to sing, there are many times when Margaret is one of the few that remembers that music.   She says the songs have such beautiful words. 

When she started singing in the choir, they would sing at both services every Sunday, except in the summertime.  She also thinks there was more reverence while singing years ago than there is now.  They had a bigger choir back then and had high school kids that sang with them.  They used to sing hymns instead of the music they have today and they would sing in the balcony with an old pump organ.

 They would go to other towns to put on concerts and would go to Luther League conventions.  Now, there are worship teams, bell choirs, soloists, and children’s choirs that also share their musical talents so the choir doesn’t have to sing as often.  But, to this day, she promotes the choir to the younger people in hopes of getting them to join.

In addition to singing in the choir, Margaret was the Superintendent of Sunday School starting in 1951, and she also taught Sunday School for several years.  She still tries to be very welcoming to the younger children of the church and misses having them sing in the choir.  She has nothing but the highest praise for our dedicated organist, Lorraine Olson, who has been playing at Grace Lutheran for nearly 58 years (since 1951).

Margaret feels that “The Spirit is truly present when we sing praises to our Lord and Savior.  It gives us a heavenly feeling and we need to continue to live in Christ and grow in Grace.”  She also feels people should share their talents because some have talents they don’t realize.

During the 1933/34 school year, she went to “Normal” training so she could be a teacher.  She went to school in Mankato, over the summer months, to get her degree. She taught at a country school for 13 years before taking a year off, when her brother went into the service, to help out on the farm.  When her sister quit teaching in 1948 to get married, Margaret quit too, and started working at Renfro Variety.  They talked her out of going to more college and she stayed to manage the store for the owners.  She ended up buying the store in 1965 and she still comes to work everyday.  She says the Good Lord has taken care of her over the years and has given her a good mind in her advanced years. 

April 22, 2009

Terri Ebert