Funeral services for Gertie Schwanke, age 96, of Castlewood, SD, will be at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 15, 2010, at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Watertown, SD.  Rev. Michael Enderle will officiate.  Music will be provided by Ruth Enderle as organist with congregational singing.  Gertie passed away on Tuesday, May 11, 2010, at a care center in Watertown.  She was the widow of Harold Schwanke.

     Burial will be at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Watertown.  Honorary pallbearers will be Gertie’s grandchildren: Julie Seim Laister, Mark (Trina) Musch, Doug (Julie) Seim, Dean (Lori) Seim, and great-grandchildren: Michelle (Johnny) Smail, Megan (Adam) Dulley, Paige Seim, Karlee Seim, Paige Kary, MyKaela Laister, and Dawson Seim.  Active pallbearers will be: Kevin Niemann, Randy Hupf, Jeff Tekrony, Roger Greenfield, Keith Krause, Phil Tesch, Tony Borgmann, Jerry Dirks, Steve Heeringa, and Robert Tekrony.

     Visitation will be at the Crawford Funeral Chapel in Watertown on Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturday prior to services at the church.  The family is requested to meet at the church on Saturday by 1:30 p.m. for a prayer service.

     Gertie was born on February 1, 1914, to Anton and Delia (Wiekamp) Tekrony.  She attended rural school Hamlin #1 near their farm in Hamlin County, SD.  She was the oldest of 11 children and helped with all of her brothers and sisters.  Gertie worked as a nanny for several families in Watertown and Sioux Falls, SD.  She also worked at Swifts Produce in Watertown and during the war, she worked as a nurse trainee at both Memorial and Bartron Hospitals.

     On February 1, 1944, Gertie married Harold Schwanke at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Watertown.  She worked as a farm wife for several years and then worked in Watertown as an ‘egg candler’ at Minnesota-Dakota Egg for almost 30 years. Her knowledge of nursing gave her the ability to deliver two of her nieces. In later years, Gertie cared for Harold and after he passed away in 1998, she continued to live the last 12 years on the farm by herself.

     She was a member of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Dempster, SD, and was very active in Ladies Aid.  Gertie enjoyed gardening, canning, cooking, baking, and sewing.  She loved to share her produce and baked goods with family and friends and anyone that stopped for a visit had to stay for coffee and lunch.  Family favorites, to name a few, were Gertie’s rhubarb, oatmeal-date cake, lemon pie, and her all-occasion ‘Happy Cake’. She loved the outdoor farm life and enjoyed journaling her family’s history.

     Gertie is survived by two daughters: Janet (Don) Seim of Watertown, SD, and Gloria (Merle) Musch of Albany, OR; four grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; two brothers: Albert Tekrony of Long Beach, CA, and Lloyd Tekrony of Clear Lake, SD; four sisters: Agnes Greenfield of Castlewood, SD, Martha Tesch of Watertown, SD, Verna (Charles) Borgmann of Burnsville, MN, and Norma (Clinton) Krause of Goodwin, SD, and many nieces and nephews.

     She was preceded in death by her husband, Harold; her parents; two brothers: James and Willis; and two sisters: Evelyn and Phyllis.