Not using one’s gifts was never an option in the Erickson family in Conrad, Mont.
Some of the 10 children could sing, and they sang. Some preached the Lord’s word as missionaries. One stayed home to run the farm.
Joseph E. Erickson combined two gifts as he planted wheat and used his tenor voice to spread the teachings of Jesus around the world.
When he left the family farm in 1988, he resettled in Mukilteo with his wife, Dorothy, and continued to use his voice to entertain with the Primetimers Choir.
Erickson, 90, died in early February of heart failure. The sound of the “singing farmer” is captured in albums and will be remembered by many from his years on the Lutheran Gospel Hour.
He was heard all the way to Africa on the gospel station. His nephew, Erick Erickson, who was raised with missionary parents in Africa, remembers tuning in the shortwave radio to hear his uncle sing on a Christian radio station.
Of the 10 Erickson children, nine were sons, and five were missionaries in Africa. The only sister married a preacher.
Joseph Erickson left the farm for college, paying his way by singing in the Erickson-Walla Quartet in the 1930s that included two of his brothers, Vernon and Roy, who toured the United States and Europe.
In 1943, he went home to help on the farm and stayed until retiring near Kamiak High School. As a wheat grower with no farm animals, winters were down time, so the devout Christian spent the cold months on mission trips to Japan, Taiwan, Africa and Vietnam.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Erickson, and his wife, Dorothy, traveled extensively with Pastor Rosenius Norheim, preaching and singing around the United States.
That is when Erickson got his nickname. He farmed part of the year and sang the rest.
Days on the farm were special to his nephew, Ron Erickson.
“He taught me how to drive trucks and the tractor,” Ron Erickson said. “He was patient. We harvested together.”
Ron Erickson lived in the city and said lessons learned from Uncle Joe on the farm made him feel like a man.
Another farm visitor, Morris Larsen, was a seminary student when Erickson needed help building The Conrad Mission Church.
“Joe said he could never go to Africa with his brothers,” Larsen said. “I observed a committed Christian, on a combine.”
Friend Gary Stueckle was a youngster in Eastern Washington when Joseph Erickson would stay at the Stueckle farm during singing engagements.
“He was a remarkable guy,” Stueckle said. “As a kid, when he talked to you, he cared about what you said.”
Stueckle said he loved to hear Erickson sing.
“I grew up hearing him on the radio,” Stueckle said. “I admired his faith, his gentleness, his interest in everybody. He had a unique gift of caring.”
His father’s voice was passed to his son, Dennis, and grandsons Jesse and Peter.
Erickson is survived by his daughter, Lorna Barnes; sons, Dennis and Lynn; brothers, Vernon and Bennett; grandchildren, Christopher Walla, Jennifer Nunnally, Jon Walla, Jesse Erickson and Peter Erickson; and great-grand-children, Gabriel, Julia and Mitchell.
Nephew Jim Erickson said his Uncle Joe sang at his wedding. He said the church musician loved to hear that voice.
“The organ player cranked it up to see how loud Uncle Joe could sing,” Jim Erickson said.
He said one wedding guest came not so much for the nuptials but to hear the singing farmer.
“He sang about the good news about Jesus,” Jim Erickson said.
“He knew his musical messages would transform people. The foundation of his life was his love of Christ.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com
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