Dottie Mae Larsen

Dottie Mae Larsen was born in Eveleth, Minnesota, in 1950, and spent the better part of her life a few counties away in the same small library where she first fell in love with books as a child. She became the town librarian in 1978 and held the position for 34 years, long enough to check out books to the children of children she had once helped with summer reading programs. People still talked about her book recommendations the way others talk about inherited recipes. She married Warren Larsen in 1973, and the two of them built a quiet, steady life together -- dinner at the same hour every evening, Saturday walks along the lake, and a shared belief that a good novel was as good as a vacation. Warren passed in 2019, and Dottie carried his absence with a grace that impressed everyone who knew her. She kept his armchair in the same spot and his reading lamp on a timer. Her daughters remember her as someone who never raised her voice but had a way of making her point that left no room for argument. She loved crossword puzzles, smelled of lily of the valley, and believed deeply that every child who could read had something no one could take from them. She passed in late March, holding her youngest daughter's hand, having spent her life doing exactly what she set out to do.