Janet Corrine Haugner Benson, 90, of Savage, Minn., passed away on Aug. 1, 2014. Janet was born on Sept. 22, 1923 in Madison, Wis., to Clarence and Clara Gulson Haugner. She grew up in Madison, where she attended Randall Elementary School and graduated from West High School. She attended St. Olaf College for two years and completed her degree in Secondary Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She taught English for two years in Janesville, Wis. On Aug. 16, 1947, she and Claude Benson ’46 were married at Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison. They made their home in Minneapolis, where Janet taught at St. Peter’s Lutheran School and then worked in the library at Ramsey Junior High School. They moved into their new home in Richfield, Minn. in August 1952 and Claude died of polio six weeks later. Janet continued living in Richfield for almost 50 years. She was an assistant librarian at Roosevelt High School and then was head librarian at Washburn High School before becoming the head librarian at Richfield High School. She had studied Library Science through evening and summer school at the University of Minnesota and earned a Media Specialist degree from St. Cloud State University. Janet retired in 1983. She moved to Sunrise Terrace Apartments in Slayton, Minn. in 2002. In January 2003 she moved to Lindenwood Assisted Living Apartments and became a resident of Golden Living Center in Slayton in October 2005. Janet moved to Ebenezer Ridges Care Center, Burnsville, Minn. in September 2013. Janet was a former member of House of Prayer Lutheran Church in Richfield. She had belonged to a retired teachers group and the American Association of University Women. She enjoyed reading, traveling, and music, and she was an accomplished pianist, walking and spending time visiting with family and friends.

Survivors include her daughter, son, and their spouses: Corrine and Tim Totzke, and Claude Benson ’75 and Kaye; three grandchildren: Ann and her husband Chance Nelson, Amy Smit, and Mark Totzke and his wife Stacie; three great-grandchildren: Gabe Smit and Matthew and Katie Nelson; a sister-in-law, Barbara Benson Taft ’46 P ’74; and six nephews. She is preceded in death by her husband, Claude; her parents; sister, Pauline Taylor; brother, Raymond Haugner; sister-in-law, Esther Benson; brothers-in-law, Gordon Taft ’47 P ’74 and Jim Taylor; and grandson, Michael Horton.