Swift County Monitor-News columnist and a former partner in its ownership Patricia Ann (Roth) Anfinson, 89, died last Wednesday, April 4, 2012, at the Swift County-Benson Hospital, in Benson.Funeral services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday, April 12, at Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church in Benson with a visitation one hour before the service. There will also be a visitation Wednesday evening between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the church. Interment will be at the Our Redeemer's Lutheran cemetery in Benson.In 1960, Patricia and Ronald Anfinson became partners in the Swift County Monitor-News when they purchased the newspaper along with Jim and Audrey Kinney of Glenwood. They were co-owners of the newspaper until they sold it in 1990.In November 1969 she began writing a column for the Swift County Monitor-News. Except for a two-year break following the death of her daughter, Susan Kari Anfinson in October 1975, she wrote her Sage, Parsley and Thyme column for nearly 40 years. She also published two cookbooks, Pat Anfinson's Country Cookbook and Pat Anfinson's County Cookbook. There were compilations of her columns about family and community, and included many of her recipes as well as those of others that were her favorites.Patricia Ann Anfinson was born Feb. 23, 1923, in Brainerd, MN, to Ernest George and Ruth Aroaha Vester Roth. She graduated in 1941 from Brainerd High School. She attended the University of Minnesota's College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Home Economics at the St. Paul Campus where her father had earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in agriculture in 1916 and a Masters of Science in agriculture in 1917. She earned a BS degree from the U of M with a specialty in Home Economics in March 1945.At the U of M, Patricia became the roommate of Benson native Pat McGowan, the daughter of the owner of the Swift County Monitor & News at the time. During a visit to Benson, she introduced Patricia to Ronald Anfinson. After graduating from the University, Patricia traveled by train to Boston, MA, for an internship in dietetics at Massachusetts General Hospital. She then returned to Minneapolis after Ron traveled to Boston to propose. They were married Sept. 8, 1946 in Brainerd. She then went to work for Washburn-Crosby Company (later General Mills) in the Betty Crocker Division. Her principal job was answering baking questions from the public. One of her areas of expertise was "wondercake" as reported in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune Feb. 15, 1948. The Tribune story carried a photo of her answering two phones at the same time. It was also at Betty Crocker that she would supply the recipe for the cookie that later would earn her the name of the "Snickerdoodle Lady."At Betty Crocker she helped with the first picture cookbook ("Big Red") that was published in 1950 and included her family recipe for Snickerdoodles. Patricia and Ron Anfinson lived in Minneapolis until the spring of 1948 when Ronald Anfinson graduated from the University of Minnesota and they then moved to Benson. After her six children started school, Patricia went to work as a dietician for the Swift County-Benson Hospital. During her career, she would also work for the hospitals in Appleton, Starbuck, Montevideo and Morris. She also worked as a dietician for the Meadow Lane Healthcare Center in Benson as well as nursing homes in other communities in the area.While living in Benson surrounded by the Norwegian heritage of her husband's Anfinson and Johnson families, she learned to make sweetsoup and Kransa Kaka wedding cakes. She also fell in love with the family summer cottage on Lake Minnewaska where five generations of the Johnson family have been gathering since 1923. She loved quilting, sewing and knitting. But there was nothing she loved more than spending time with her grandchildren.She is survived by sons Mark Anfinson and Debbie Maurer of St. Paul; Scott (Patty) Anfinson of Northfield; Reed (Shelly) Anfinson of Benson; John Anfinson of Shoreview; and Robert Anfinson of Benson. Three sisters, Ruthie Waller of Vancouver, WA; Ramona Hess of Yuba City, CA; and Rosemary Rodewald of Reno, NV. She had 18 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Patricia Anfinson was preceded in death by her husband, Ron, in 2006 and her daughter, Susan Kari Anfinson in 1975. In lieu of flowers, Family prefers memorials to Swift County Benson Hospital Foundation or the Susan Anfinson Memorial Scholarship
