Deborah Long died Thursday, November 20, 2008, at Brookview Manor in Brookings, South Dakota. Funeral services will be 2:00 P.M. Sunday, November 23, 2008, at Eidsness Funeral Home in Brookings, with interment at a later date at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Visitations will precede services at the funeral home, beginning at 1:00 P.M. Memorials may be directed to the First United Methodist Church Foundation for Christian Education, or to the Red Cross.

T. Deborah (Pedersen) Long was born June 7, 1908, at Tyler, Minnesota, to Danish immigrants, Hans C. and Anna K. (Wogensen) Pedersen.  She grew up on a farm and attended school in Tyler, Minnesota.  After high school she attended Mankato State University to become a rural schoolteacher.  Her teaching career started in rural schools near Lake Benton and Tyler.  She continued her studies and earned a Bachelor's degree from MSU in Elementary Education in 1960.  In 1935 she married Cowin Long and moved to the Worthington area.  Cowin passed away in 1955.

After teaching hundreds of fourth graders near and in Worthington, she retired from teaching in 1973.  Deborah was a member of the Worthington Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minnesota Education Association, Eastern Star, and was an active church and community volunteer.  She helped with the Worthington Red Cross Blood Bank for several years after retiring.

In 2004, she relocated to Brookings, residing at Stoney Brook Suites to be nearer to her sister Wanda Sondergaard and her nephew James O. Pedersen.  In Brookings, she joined the First United Methodist Church.

Survivors include a sister, Wanda Sondergaard, of Brookings; a brother, Roy Pedersen, of Junction City, Oregon; and many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews.  She was preceded in death by her parents; a sister, Olivia Pedersen; two brothers:  Nis Pedersen and Leo Pedersen; and an infant brother, Leo.