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- [S927] Obituary.
Malinda Stroh was married for 72 years
By Jo Hall
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 2:47 PM CST
Very few couples can top the record of Malinda and Edwin Stroh for a long and loving marriage. She was living on a farm near Eureka when she met Ed through relatives. They were married on Sept. 27, 1936, and moved to Mobridge in March of 1957 to spend the remainder of their life together in the Bridge City.
Always, Malinda and Ed worked together, whether in the field when they were farming near Eureka, or in their later years when they were active in Mobridge. For several years Ed made wooden rocking horses with real hair tails and fringed saddles to be used as prizes at the annual Hospital Bazaar. Skillful Malinda would paint the horses, giving them big black eyes and expressions that made the children want to hug them. Sometimes the horses were brown, or white with gray spots.
He also made little cupboards and other items of wood for their grandchildren and for sale, and while he did the woodwork, it was Malinda who painted them.
Because one of her favorite skills was cooking, Malinda worked as a cook at the Sereno Caf/ and later the Silver Grill. Always one to keep busy, she was also employed as custodian of Trinity Lutheran Church for several years.
The inevitable came when Malinda died Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009, at the Mobridge Regional Hospital. She was 93.
Malinda Karolina was born Dec. 3, 1915, to Rudolph and Katherina (Opp) Hilgemann. She grew up on their farm 16 miles northeast of Eureka. The oldest of three girls and two boys in the family, Malinda learned to help in the kitchen at an early age. As soon as she could handle it, she was left to do much of the cooking while her mother worked with her father in the fields.
She used to laugh when she recalled one cooking disaster. "I was so small I was mixing a cake with the bowl on a chair. The batter was all ready for the pan when the bowl slipped off the chair and broke."
She and Ed farmed near Eureka for 21 years and they were difficult years. They had no water in the winter and had to haul it about half a mile in a big tank. It would freeze on the way. "We would have to heat the tank to get the water out and into the tank in the house," she would recall.
Then their country school was closed and they had to board their children in Eureka so they could go to school there. That was a hardship because they were 11 miles from town and couldn't make the trip back and forth much. They had shopped in Mobridge over the years and liked the city. Although they didn't know a soul in Mobridge, they sold their farm and bought a house in the Bridge City. Their son Jim had graduated from Eureka High School, but all their other children are graduates of Mobridge High School.
Ed found work driving trucks for Mobil and Texaco, then became a janitor at Freeman-Davis School while Malinda cooked in the cafes and at Trinity Church.
Edwin retired in 1979 and upon her retirement, they spent 17 years wintering in Arizona where they made many long-lasting friendships.
In addition to her love for cooking and baking, she enjoyed sharing with others. Her family especially loved her cheese buttons and kuchen. She was also an artist with her crocheting, embroidery, quilting and tole painting. She and Ed enjoyed fishing and there are many photos to prove her skill with a baited line. Every year she planted and harvested a large garden and gave generously to others. Board games, cards and spending time with family and friends added to her pleasures.
Mourning her loss are her husband, Ed; their children, Jim (Bev) Stroh of Tomah, Wis., Janette "Jan" (Frank) Scherr of Sarasota, Fla., Ione (Otto) Oster of Mobridge, Verna Best of Pine City, Minn., Vera (Donald) Kraemer of Isabel, Wanda (Davis) Martin of Mobridge and June (Toby) Day of Chandler, Ariz.; 19 grandchildren, 33 great grandchildren and nine great great grandchildren; and one sister, Rosetta Schnabel of Sioux Falls.
Her sister, Alice Beck, brothers Oscar, Raymond and Henry Hilgemann, her parents, granddaughter Elizabeth Scherr Archambault and grandson Michael Scherr preceded Malinda in death.
Funeral services for Malinda were Saturday, Feb. 14, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mobridge with Pastor Doug Westerlund officiating. Burial was at Mobridge Greenwood Cemetery under the direction of Oster Funeral Home of Mobridge.
Memorials were directed to the A.H. Brown Public Library or Trinity Lutheran Church.
- [S558] South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949.
Name: Rudolf Hilgemann
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Spouse: Katharina Opp
Marriage Date: 8 Dec 1914
Marriage County: McPherson
County of Residence: McPherson
Post Office: Eureka
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1915 - 2009 (93 years)