Emma (Sittner) Nelson, 97, of Mobridge and formerly of Lemmon, passed away Monday, January 24, 2011 at Mobridge Regional Hospital in Mobridge after suffering a heart attack on Sunday.


The Funeral Service for Emma will be held at the New Hope Worship Center in Lemmon on Saturday, January 29, at 2 p.m. MT. Rev. Loyd Veal of Bison and Rev. Dan Lindeman of Lemmon will officiate with interment in Greenhill Cemetery.


There will be a family service at 10:30 a.m. at the church.


Visitation will be on Friday from 1:00 to 7:00pm at the Evanson-Jensen Funeral Home in Lemmon and on Saturday from 10:00 to 2:00 at the New Hope Worship Center.


Emma Marie Sittner was born July 2, 1913 in a sod house in Perkins County, SD to Johannes (John) and Elizabeth (Seidel) Sittner. Their farm was located 7 miles northwest of Meadow. Emma's father John Sittner, immigrated from the village of Unterwalden, on the Wiesenseite (Meadow side) of the Volga River in Russia in 1906. At the time of their voyage to North America, John and Elizabeth had three children — Julia, Katie and Peter. After living briefly at Menno and Lemmon, they homesteaded northwest of Meadow. Although John Sittner was the only one from his family to immigrate, the entire Franz Seidel family immigrated to the United States between 1905 and 1907 and all settled in the Meadow area, at least for a time. The Seidel family was from the Guldendorf and Gnadenfeld (Neikowo) colonies in the Black Sea area of South Russia (The Ukrainian Republic). The Seidels and Sittners were ethnic Germans. John Sittner and Elizabeth Seidel had met in Odessa and were married in 1899. John served in the Russian Army prior to coming to the United States.


Five more children were born to the couple while they lived on their farm: Ella, Emil, Emma, Alexander and Martha.


In 1918 after their youngest child was born, John and Elizabeth built a ten room rammed earth and wood frame house, which still stands. The Sittner farm became known, at least within the family, as the Sunny Side Stock and Grain Farm. Although vacant today, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Sites.


All of the Sittner children except Julia attended Meadow Central School. Emma and her younger brother Alex attended classes together at Meadow Central through the 10th grade and graduated from Lemmon High School in 1934. During her high school years, she and her brother Alex joined the newly organized Church of God where she was a longtime active member.


In the fall of 1938 Emma went back to school, attending Northern State Teachers College at Aberdeen, SD and received a teacher's certificate. She started teaching in 1939 at the nearby Chance community. She taught country school for 25 years. Except for one year in North Dakota, all her teaching was done in Perkins and Corson counties.


On December 25, 1943 Emma married Fred Nelson, whom she had met at Chance. She continued teaching near Lemmon while Fred was in the service during World War II. Fred returned from the service in 1945 and in 1946 they purchased a small farm near Watauga, SD. It was there that they raised their sons Jim and Wilfred.


In 1957 they returned to the Chance community for a visit and while there they were persuaded to take jobs teaching school. In 1967 they moved back to Watauga where Emma taught school and Fred was a teacher's aide and janitor. In 1972 they retired from teaching and moved into Lemmon.


They continued to spend their retirement years together there. Her husband Fred passed away May 25, 1990. Emma continued to live in her own home until moving into an apartment in Lemmon and then moving to Mobridge in 2003 where she resided at the Prairie Sunset Village.


During the years that she taught school she saved photographs of all of her students. She also taught Sunday School for many years. She was also an artist and enjoyed writing about her memories and having some of her stories published. She helped with the Seidel family history and contributed to the centennial books for Chance, Lemmon, Meadow and Watauga.


She is survived by two sons, Jim (Kathy) Nelson of Timber Lake, SD and Wilfred Nelson of Big Lake, MN and numerous nieces and nephews.


She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Fred on May 25, 1990, 4 sisters, Julia Fischer, Katie Frey, Ella Jordeth, and Martha Ross, 3 brothers, Peter, Emil, and Alex Sittner.


Casketbearers will be Ron Clapsaddle, Nobel Veal, Jim Sittner, Ron Johnson, and Jack and David Ross. Honorary Casketbearers will include Norman Frey, Duane Friez, Dick Veal, Floyd Sense, Bob Baumeister, Ray Corcoran, Joel Allan Bishop and all of her friends.