Camilla Graff

CAMILLA VANDERBURG-GRAFF was born on November 17, 1941 to Dorris and Henrietta (DeVries) Vanderburg in the Luverne Minnesota Hospital. She was baptized as an infant in the Luverne Christian Reformed Church. Camilla lived in Beaver Creek, Minnesota and graduated from Beaver Creek High School in 1959. She graduated from Sioux Falls College in 1964 with a double major in English and elementary education. Camilla taught primary grades in Christian schools in Denver, Washington, DC and Seattle for twenty years. Camilla married Dave Gunderson in 1975 in Anchorage, Alaska. They were later divorced. She received immersion baptism when she joined the Baptist Church in Seattle. In 1984 Camilla worked as a nanny for three different families and then as a nurse’s aide for eight years before returning to Luverne in 1998 to stay with her mother. In all she worked for twenty years as a nurse’s aide and retired from working at the Luverne Veterans Nursing Home in 2007. Camilla married Lyle Graff in 2012. At that time she inherited seven children, twenty-two grandchildren and twenty-five great grandchildren. Camilla Graff died on December 20, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. She was 81 years old.

Camilla enjoyed hiking, camping, backpacking, downhill and cross-country skiing, needle crafts and crocheting afghans, baby blankets, prayer shawls, doilies and much more. She liked gardening and shopping at thrift stores. In-depth study of the Bible was a joy for her as was singing. In her later years, Camilla fought battles with breast cancer, lymphoma cancer, skin cancer and kidney cancer. Through it all, God walked beside her.

Camilla was preceded in death by her father and mother, Dorris and Henrietta; sister-in-law, Carol Vanderburg; nephew, Justin Vanderburg, and second husband, Lyle Graff. She is survived by her brother Dennis and his wife, Carolyn, sister Nancy, brother James and his wife, Joann, and brother Keith and his wife, Lynda along with many beloved nephews, nieces, her companion, Leroy and friend Sue and extended family members and dear friends.