Obituary of Yvonne Lee Mogensen
Yvonne Lee Mogensen (62) resident of Emida, ID passed away early morning February 15, 2023 at Kootenai Health in Coeur d’ Alene, ID due to ongoing medical conditions.
Von (as those close to her would call her) was born May 19, 1960 in Spooner, WI to Georgia and Robert Pearson. She grew up loving the outdoors, nature, and animals. She even had a pet squirrel that she snuck to school with her. Von would call herself a “Tom Boy”. She always spoke fondly of caring for their vegetable garden with her father and going on adventures outdoors. This sparked Yvonne’s lifelong love for growing plants – some would say she had a “Green Thumb”. In 1998 Yvonne and her beloved husband James Mogensen, built a small greenhouse and grew some plants and vegetables for themselves. They underestimated their abilities and had to place an ad in the local newspaper, “Ooops we grew too much”. That was it, for the next 16 years they would grow and run a successful greenhouse business “Green Thumb Gardens” together.
Yvonne couldn’t wait for planting season. She loved all of the beautiful flowers she helped grow, but her passion was designing her famous beautiful hanging baskets and container gardens. She enjoyed helping her customers design their own works of art and couldn’t wait to see her return customers every year and catch up. She considered her customers family.
As much as Yvonne had a love for growing beautiful plants, she also shared a great love of the mountains with her husband. In 2015 Yvonne, James and their son Aaron moved to North Idaho obtain their dream of living in the mountains to start a small ranch. Her favorite part of living in the mountains was going on ATV rides up the mountain with James, Aaron, and her best dog Kenzie. She loved the wildlife so much that every time she saw a moose or elk, it was like the first time. She couldn’t wait to call her other children that stayed in the Midwest to tell them about the animals that she saw on her rides. When her other children Brandon, Nichole, and Alissa would come to visit, her first and only activity she wanted to do was take everyone 4-wheeling to share the mountains with them.
Yvonne loved the farm animals as well. She found so much joy in watching the lambs and calves all day outside the window. One of her favorite parts of the day was when James would come in from making the morning rounds and he would show her pictures of the new little babies. She would say, “What pictures did you take for me today”?
Her family and friends will always remember her by her love of nature and animals. Those who knew her knew that she could take it and dish it out. They will always remember her snarky, fun, sarcastic sense of humor.
Yvonne is survived by her loving husband James Mogensen; her children Brandon (Kelly) Dahlstrom, Nichole Hoffman, Aaron Mogensen, and Alissa (Cody) Helstern; and her grandchildren Kylee and Alexa Dahlstrom. She is preceded in death by her parents Robert and Georgia Pearson.
A private family Celebration of Life will be held at the ranch she loved in Emida Idaho.
