Ellen Kathlee Berg was born on September 19, 1952 to Howard O. and Bernadine (Seward) Berg. She was baptized, confirmed and made her First Communion at St. Joseph Catholic Church and attended St. Joseph’s School from 1958-1965. She then attended Central High School and graduated in 1970. She continued her education at UND and graduated in 1974 with a Masters in Library Science. She spent two years in Denver where she received a Minor in Education. In 1977 she spent a few months traveling throughout Europe.
She returned to the States and worked at a Black Ministry College in Dallas, Texas from 1978-1980. In 1980 she went to work in New York for the United States Customs where in 1993 she survived a truck bomb in the parking garage of her building. In 2011 she was working in the towers when they were hit. She and a co-worker were the last two to get on the ferry before the tidal waves hit.
Ellen loved practical jokes, good natured arguing (especially political debates), and reading anything she could get her hands on or collecting them just like her Dad did. She loved her 6 cats that she doted on every morning and night. She also loved plants and her last wish was that she’d live long enough to see the daffodils in the spring.
Ellen was diagnosed in 2021 with liver cancer and after a year of fighting it, she died peacefully at Sanford on Broadway in Fargo with her brother Greg and two nieces Brandy (Berg) Duberowski and Jenann Kraft with her.
She is survived by her brothers Greg Berg, Perry Berg and Bruce Berg; sisters Allyson Berg (Daniel A. Kraft) and Karen Possen; sister-in-law Kathy Privartski Berg; aunt Janet Grasser; good friend Susan Otto; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
She was preceded in death by her parents Howard and Bernadine Berg, grandparents Oscar and Edna Berg, David and Margot Taylor, Edmund and Mary Seward, sisters-in-law Terri (Walter) Berg and Karen Berg, nephews Kent James Berg and Steven Joshua Berg.
She will be missed by all.