Funeral Service for Mrs. Bertrum (Nilda) Ellingson, 87, of Sisseton, SD will be held on Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 1:00 P.M. at Grace Lutheran Church, Sisseton, SD with the Rev. William Schruba officiating. Organist will be Mona Greseth with soloist Aaron Deutsch. Pallbearers will be Aaron, Jason, and Ryan Frerichs, Jacob and Erick Shinn, Mark and Miranda Huesman,and Laura and Craig Sifers. Honorary Pallbearers will be Dorothy and Thorvald Bredvik, Norma Smith, Delbert and Sherry Mayou, Ardeth Simon, and Tom and Bonnie Leverson Family. Interment will be in the Trondhjem Cemetery, rural Rosholt, SD. There will be visitation on Friday, June 25, 2010 from 2:00 to 7:00 P.M. at the Cahill Funeral Chapel and on Saturday, one hour prior to the funeral service at the church. Nilda Renfroe was born on October 16, 1922 to John and Bertha (Patterson) Renfroe in Greensboro, AL. She grew up and attended school in numerous places in Texas, Oregon, and Alabama, her favorite place being Menard, Texas, with her final school being Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery, AL. Crops grown on the family farm in Alabama included peanuts, cotton, corn and sugar cane. She remained in Montgomery after high school, working as a long-distance operator for the telephone company at the beginning of World War II. In Montgomery she met her future husband who was taking flight training. On May 15, 1943, she married Bertrum Ellingson of Rosholt, SD, in New London, CT, followed by a 2-day honeymoon in New York City. For the next twenty years she was an active officer's wife, living in Chicago, Las Vegas, Casablanca, London, Montgomery, and Baltimore as well as smaller cities. In 1963, upon Bertrum's retirement from the U.S. Air Force, they moved to the Sisseton area where they farmed for twenty-six years. She actively backed her husband's successful campaigns for the state legislature from 1968 through 1978. They wintered in Texas from 1981 to 2007. Nilda was a member of Grace Lutheran Church where she had served as an officer of the Grace Lutheran Churchwomen and was a Sunday school teacher. She had been a member of the Roberts County Democrat Party, Grey Ladies, Extension Club, a member of and an officer of the Capitol Spouses Club, and the Officers Wife's Club in the Air Force. She was involved in 4-H and PTA in Baltimore and Sisseton when her children where younger. Nilda passed away on June 22, 2010 at the Tekakwitha Living Center, Sisseton, SD.
Nilda is survived by her husband, Bertrum Ellingson of Sisseton, SD; three children, Robert Ellingson of Sisseton, SD, Faye (Kent) Frerichs of Wilmot, SD, and Linda (Michael) Shinn of Kansas City, MO; two sisters, Allie (Marion) Holland of Myrtle Beach, SC, and Clara Presgraves of Los Angeles, CA; seven grandchildren, Miranda Huesman of Barnesville, MN, Aaron, Jason and Ryan Frerichs of Wilmot, SD, Laura Sifers, Jacob and Erick Shinn all of Kansa City, MO; four great grandchildren, Noah, Nathaniel, Nicholas and Ava Huesman all of Barnesville, MN.
Nilda was preceded in death by her parents, one infant sister, Mary Edith; and four brothers, Douglas, John, Newt, and Clint.