Service of Remembrance for Cleo M. Huiner, age 64 of rural Perkins County, SD, will be Friday, March 2, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. at the Hettinger Lutheran Church in Hettinger, ND. Rev. Kathleen Dettmann will officiate and burial will be at Duck Creek Lutheran Cemetery, near Lodgepole, SD following lunch immediately after the funeral service. Visitations will be from 1:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 1st at the Centennial Chapel (formerly the First Congregational Church) in Hettinger, ND and one hour prior to the funeral on Friday morning.

Cleo Margaret Ellingson was born on July 18, 1947 to Elvin and Flora (Nash) Ellingson in Hettinger, ND. She attended Glendo School near her home in northwestern Perkins County, SD through the eighth grade. She then attended Hettinger High School, graduating in 1965. Cleo was baptized and a confirmed member of Duck Creek Lutheran Church.


At an early age, Cleo developed a love for the farm and prairie life. She also had a likeness for drawing and painting, which led her to study Art Education at Black Hills State University for two years. She then returned home to the family farm to work with her dad.


On August 29, 1975 she was married to Darwin Huiner at the Hettinger Lutheran Church. They both attended the Go-Getters 4-H club when young and began their life together on a farm/ranch 8 miles from where Cleo grew up. They had one daughter, Jaylynn Kay, born on May 10, 1980. Cleo enjoyed working with the sheep and being in the lambing barn and watching the lambs every spring. She equally enjoyed the cows and calves after the sheep were sold in early 1996.


On July 10, 1997 Cleo was critically injured in a car accident south of Hettinger, suffering a broken back and spent 6 ½ weeks at the St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck, ND. She had a strong determination to walk again, even though Doctors thought she never would. In October of 1998, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and began chemotherapy treatments in Bismarck, followed by radiation for 6 ½ weeks


In addition to drawing and painting, Cleo enjoyed counted cross-stitching, feeding and watching the different birds that would come to the bird feeders, playing cards and board games, putting jigsaw puzzles together, word find games and Sudoku games. Every spring for many years she was a volunteer for the American Cancer Society Fund Drive in her community and volunteered with the Dakota Prairie Helping Hands, of which she was also a Board Member.


Cleo was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer in July 2010 and began chemotherapy in August of that year in Bismarck. With a strong determination to live, Cleo took chemotherapy until the end of December 2011. Cleo passed away at her home on Saturday, February 25, 2012 with family at her side.

Those who will greatly miss her are her husband, Darwin, their daughter, Jaylynn, of Dickinson, ND, her mother, Flora Ellingson, of Mott, ND, a brother, Phillip (Sharon) Ellingson, Prairie City, SD, sisters, Beverly Byers, of Reeder, ND, Judy (Joe) Materna Hettinger, ND, Kathy (Zack) Jones, Reeder, ND, a special great aunt, Dorothy Olston, Corsica, SD, brother-in-law, Duane (Ardyth) Huiner, of Hettinger, sister-in-law, Phyllis (Butch) Andress, Lodgepole, SD, numerous nephews, neices, aunts, uncles and cousins and her special cat, "Big Kitten".

Cleo was preceded in death by her father, Elvin Ellingson, two sisters at birth, Sonja De Etta and Ja Nelle Eileen, a brother-in-law, Tex Byers and her father and mother-in-law, Henry and Gertrude Huiner.