Bertha “Peggy” Evelyn Ranta

Funeral service for Bertha “Peggy” Evelyn Ranta, 92, of Markham, will be 11 a.m. Friday in Palo Congregational Church in Palo with the Rev. Randy Melhus officiating. Visitation will be for one hour prior to the service at the church. Burial will be in the Markham Cemetery in Colvin Township, Minn.

Peggy died Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008, at the Aftenro Home, an independent and assisted senior living facility in Duluth.

She was born March 29, 1916, in Palo to Finnish immigrants, Erick and Senia (Koski) Skytta at the family homestead on Loon Lake. After attending School 84 in Palo, she worked in her father’s general store and gas station.

She then moved to Duluth and did housework briefly, employed by the family of Matt and Carm Elde of Midway, who were owners of Elde’s General Store.

For the next five years, Peggy worked at the Nopeming Sanatorium and then married Arne Armas Ranta of Markham on Nov. 3, 1938, in Eveleth. They moved to the Hemming Ranta homestead in Markham. They returned to Duluth during World War II, where Peggy worked at Northern Drug and Arne worked at the Butler Shipyard in Superior. Following the war, they settled in Markham, where they owned and operated Ranta’s Resort on the Whiteface Reservoir for more than 40 years.

Peggy was a member of the Palo Congregational Church, and was its oldest active member. She enjoyed, as well as was known for her skills in cooking, baking and handwork and was a long-time member of the local sewing club. She was a master rag rug weaver, a school bus driver, and truly a housekeeper and homemaker extraordinaire!

Survivors include her children Marlene Ranta of Santa Monica, Calif. and Arnold Ranta of Stillwater, Minn.; grandson Adam Ranta; and several nieces and nephews.

She is preceded in death by her parents; husband Arne in 1992; sisters Florence Skytta in 1933 and Sylvia (Skytta) Wiita in 2002; brother Einar Skytta in 1965.

Arrangements by Ziemer-Moeglein-Shatava Funeral Home in Gilbert.

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