Nora Beatrice Fladeboe was born October 10, 1903 on a farm in Dunbar Township in Sargent County, North Dakota. She was the oldest daughter of Johannes Fladeboe and his wife Bertha Boyum, a one-time rural school teacher. She attended Wahpeton High School and Valley City State Teacher’s College, after which she taught school in Dunbar Township (1922-1923).

She married Ralph E. Mohberg June 15, 1923, to which union four children were born. Upon Ralph Mohberg’s death in 1950, Nora renewed her teacher’s certificate and resumed teaching in Willey Township . After obtaining her bachelor’s degree she taught English at LaMoure, Milnor and Ayr , N.D. In 1963 she began working at the North Dakota State Library and worked there until retiring in 1975. She later resided at Wahpeton and Fargo where she died July 13, 1995 .

Nora Mohberg is the author of several titles which reside in the Institute’s publications collection: A Home for Agate (1957 and 1966); Voices from the Prairies [195-?]; The Saddlebug (1968); After You, Andrew (1970); Duke of Dunbar (1971); and Sarah, Your Sister Needs You (1977?).

Nora’s sister, Eunice Fladeboe Whitinger, who is given credit on the title page of the two Cloud Before the Sun manuscripts, was born May 31, 1908 in Dunbar Township, Sargent County, N.D. She studied at Valley City State Teachers College, and music at Ellendale and Minot, N.D. She married Elwood Whitinger, also of Dunbar Township . They lived at Charlotte , Michigan and raised six children. Eunice was the author of two family histories on the Flataboe and Whitinger families. She died in 1981.

Sources consulted: Cloud Before the Sun, 1955; Nora Fladeboe Mohberg obituary, Fargo Forum 17 July 1995, p. B5. Before and after Ole and Agate: A Flatabø Genealogy, by Eunice Fladaboe Whitinger, 1968.

Nora Mohberg Papers  |  Literary, Music and Theater