Lorna Frances Bulford Petersen was born on July 2, 1920 in Bendigo Victoria, Australia to Mabel and Walter McDonald. Her youth was spent in Melbourne, Australia enjoying the ocean, going to the horse races, fashion shows and playing tennis. Lorna owned a dress shop in downtown Melbourne where she enjoyed designing and making ball gowns. She later met the love of her life, Soren Lykke Petersen during WWII when her mum housed and cared for wounded soldiers. Soren courted Lorna in Melbourne, Australia. He then purposed marriage and brought Lorna back to the states in the summer of 1946. They made their home on the Petersen Dairy, north of Sidney, where they remained the next 34 years raising their family and farming.
Always stylish, Lorna continued with her interest in designing and sewing while learning to cook for a farm crew. After leaving the farm in 1970, she worked for the next 22 years at Sears. In 2013 she sold the big house on the corner enjoyed by so many family events and moved in with daughter Nina. In 2014 they moved to Billings where she spent her last years lovingly cared for and referred to as the ‘queen’.
Lorna always rejoiced in the activities that her children and grandchildren brought her. Always loving and supportive, cheerful and joyful, she had an undaunted enthusiasm for fun and life.
Lorna died early Monday morning, June 20, 2016, at the Riverstone Hospice House, Billings, MT.
Lorna is survived by: her brother, Sid Bulford and his two daughters (Vancouver, B.C.); her children, LaVern Petersen (Nancy), Nina Reidle (Larry) and Rodger (Jody) and her grandchildren Laura (Johnye Kelly) , Myra (Reese Butler), Melanie (John Hartman), and Kim (Andy Connolly), Sarah (Josh Schmidt), Heather (Josh Craft), Rodger Jr., and Murell (Casey Jardine); and thirteen great-grandchildren.
Lorna was preceded in death by her husband Soren, his brothers’ Marvin, Gunner, Rueben, Leo and his sister Astrid and Eileen Bulford.