Verna E. Driveness

Verna E. Driveness, 94 of Sioux Falls formerly of Colton died Friday, May 5, 2006 at Dow Rummel Village. Funeral services will begin at 1:00 PM Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at the Halladay-Peterson Chapel at Dow Rummel Village. Visitation with the family present will be from 6-8:00 PM Tuesday at the Minnehaha Funeral Home, Colton. Burial will be in the St. Ansgar Cemetery, rural Colton.


Verna Elva White was born December 27, 1911 to John and Laura (Flory) White. Her four older siblings were born in Battle Creek, Iowa before the family moved to a farm northwest of Baltic, one mile east and two miles south of the Willow Creek Lutheran Church, where Verna was born. She attended District #32 grade school, and graduated from Dell Rapids High School in the class of 1929. She attended and graduated from Jamestown College, Jamestown, North Dakota, receiving her teaching certificate. She taught grade school for several years at a country school south of Hartford.


Verna married Selmer Driveness October 15, 1940 in Sioux Falls, where they lived until renting a farm in 1943 near Union Center, 20 miles west of Sioux Falls in Wellington Township. In 1945 they moved to and purchased on contract a farm north of Union Center. They had a daughter, Darlene.


Verna and Selmer purchased and farmed the original “home quarter” adding an additional quarter in the 1950’s, where they prospered until retiring into Colton in the fall of 1989.


They were members of Our Saviors Lutheran Church throughout their rural career. Verna was ever the supportive partner to her enterprising husband who repaired neighbors’ machinery, and did custom corn shelling, silo-filling, and corn picking throughout the county, as well as serving on the Wellington Township #113 School Board, and the township Board of Supervisors.

After Selmer’s death on February 4, 1992, Verna moved to Sioux Falls, living at Sunrise Apartments for two years, before moving to Dow Rummel in 1998, where she lived until her death on May 5, 2006


Rejoicing for having shared her life are her daughter, Darlene (Driveness) Streedbeck, her grandchildren, Larissa Rasmussen and Zachary Streedbeck and his wife Amber, great grandchildren, Brady and Levi Streedbeck all of Sioux Falls; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brothers, Frank and Ivan and her sisters, Ruby Yount and Goldya Dougal.