Alta Viola Morstad

Aug. 19, 1927 – July 5, 2018As per her request, no services will be held for Alta Viola Morstad, 90, who passed away July 5.Alta was born Aug. 19, 1927, in Spencer, Iowa, the daughter of Frank Wayne and Lena Violet Pelley. She grew up on the family farm in northern Iowa and graduated from high school in Le Roy, Minn., just across the state line.She married Lloyd Morstad in 1945. Several years later they started farming in Iowa. In 1963, Alta became a student at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. She graduated in 1967 with a degree in social work.They had seven children. In the 1970s Alta moved to the Big Horn Basin where she lived until her death on July 5.Alta loved reading, traveling, and her dachshunds. She also enjoyed endurance horse racing and has over 500 competition miles recorded in the sport.She was preceded in death by her parents; daughter Althea Jean Morstad Wilcox and her sister, Annalee Pelley Tisdale.She is survived by six children: Thomas and Terry Morstad of Lander, Suzanne and Laurie Morstad and Kathy Arnold, all of Basin, and Carol Ann Kofman of Blanca, Colo.; her brother and sister-in-law, Frank Wayne and Nancy Pelley of Cornith, Texas; grandchildren Alta, Katherine and Joseph Kofman of Colorado, Adrienne Morstad of Casper, Wayne Morstad of Hawaii and Jennifer Stephenson of California and seven great-grandchildren.