Myrtle Rebecca Smemoe

Funeral Services for Myrtle R. Smemoe, age 94, of Dell Rapids will be held at 2:00 pm Friday, December 28, 2007 at East Nidaros Lutheran Church, rural Baltic, South Dakota. Visitation will begin at 2:00 pm Thursday with the family present from 6-7:00 pm at the Minnehaha Funeral Home, Baltic.

She passed away at Terrace Manor in Dell Rapids on Sunday, December 23, 2007.

Myrtle Rebecca Smemoe was born on April 17, 1913 at the Smemoe Family Homestead, southeast of Baltic, South Dakota, to parents Ole J. and Emma (Erickson) Smemoe. She was baptized and confirmed in the East Nidaros Lutheran Church, one and a half miles west of the homestead. She attended eight years of school at the Moen School, a half mile north of the homestead, graduating 8th grade in 1928.


Myrtle did domestic work in several Sioux Falls homes for seven years prior to moving to Santa Monica, California to work at the Douglas Aircraft factory for 2 years during World War II.


After the war, Myrtle returned to the midwest and enrolled in Beauty School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She eventually opened and maintained her own shop, "The Swirl Beauty Salon," in Minneapolis for the next 40 years, retiring in 1994. Myrtle was a member of the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.


In the summer of 1997, Myrtle moved back to South Dakota where she entered the Terrace Manor Nursing Home, in Dell Rapids. She enjoyed being back in her home area, renewing friendships and making new friends. Myrtle rejoined the church of her childhood, East Nidaros, when she returned to South Dakota.

Grateful for having shared her life are two sisters: Mrs. Otella Hovde of Sioux Falls, and Mrs. Luella Carlson of Pipestone, MN; 5 nieces and 3 nephews along with a host of other relatives and friends.


Myrtle was preceded in death by her parents; 1 brother Jennings; 3 sisters: Evelyn Carlson, Vivian Thomas, and infant Alice Smemoe; and 1 nephew, Lyle Carlson.


Blessed be her memory.