Flora Ellingson, age 94 of Hettinger, passed away on Friday, June 13, 2014 at the Mott Good Samaritan Society in Mott.

Funeral Services will be held on Wednesady, June 18 at 1:30 p.m. at the Hettinger Lutheran Church. Rev. Kathleen Dettmann will officiate and after a time of refreshments, burial will follow at the Ellingson Cemetery in rural Perkins County, SD, southwest of Hettinger. Visitations will be from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 17th at the Centennial Chapel of Evanson Jensen Funeral Homes in Hettinger and one hour prior to the Funeral on Wednesday afternoon. A Gathering of Family and Friends will be at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday evening at the Centennial Chapel.

95 years ago, Sophie (Iverson) and Ed Nash must have been anxiously anticipating the birth of their fifth baby at their homestead on the Big Nasty Creek in Perkins County. Flora Ilene joined her siblings and parents on July 28th, 1919, and six more children were added to the family before Ed's sudden death in 1935. Flora attended country school at Glendo, where she made many life-long friendships. It must have been difficult, but Sophie raised 11 children, and with the help of her sons, kept the place in the family, where third and fourth generation Nash's remain today.

Not long after her father's death, Flora married Norwegian neighbor Elvin E. Ellingson on January 22, 1936. Elvin's homestead was just a few miles away, so Flora didn't have to move far from home! She became a farm and ranch wife, raising five children, as well as vegetables, flowers, chickens, and cats! (Flora must have fed hundreds of cats throughout her lifetime; a favorite family photo is of three year old Flora surrounded by kittens on the step.)
Elvin milked cows; Flora made butter and baked bread and all sorts of delicious treats in her small kitchen; she was a wonderful cook. They had no running water in those days, but she canned the harvest from her garden every summer. The root cellar beneath the house was filled with all kinds of interesting things! Long winters were spent putting puzzles together or playing board games, cards, and dominoes, with Flora darning socks nearby. The family was active in Duck Creek Lutheran Church; Flora often spoke fondly of the little white church on the prairie. They may not have had an abundance of material things, but Elvin and Flora welcomed family, friends, and neighbors, sharing what they had generously. Elvin's father even lived with them in the little house at the end of his life.

After they left home, Flora's five children and their families often gathered at the farm for Sunday dinners, birthdays, and holidays. Shearing, lambing, sledding, and riding beloved horse, Topsy, are just a few of the family's cherished memories of those days on the farm. Elvin and Flora built a new house with indoor plumbing in 1968; Flora loved her new home and cared for it lovingly. She greeted her visiting grandchildren on her back steps with open arms, Bells of Ireland, Bachelor Buttons, and other pretty flowers blooming nearby. They enjoyed only 15 years in the new house before Elvin's death in 1983. Flora stayed on for a few more years, but moved to an apartment in Reeder in 1985, leaving the chores and the place to son Phillip and his family.

Flora lived in her apartment in Reeder for many years. Throughout her lifetime she was a member of the Duck Creek Ladies Aid, Jolly Jills Homemakers Club, TOPS club, Gloria Dei Bible study, and Prairie Pioneers Senior Center. She attended many family functions including the legendary Nash reunions held every couple of years in Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, or South Dakota. When she was no longer able to live alone, she moved to assisted living at Western Horizons in Hettinger. Her last years were spent at the Good Samaritan Nursing Care facility in Mott, where she passed away on June 13, 2014.

It is almost impossible to fathom how much the world has changed since the day Flora was born nearly 95 years ago. How strange smart phones and email would have seemed to her! For most of her life, she lived on the tiniest speck on the "google" map. In the larger scheme of things, only a lucky few were blessed to have known her. As we say good-bye to her gentle soul, we remember, and are grateful for, her lessons of making do, taking time, and appreciating the simpler things of life.

Flora was preceded in death by her husband, Elvin, daughters, Cleo Huiner, infants Ja Nelle and Sonja, sisters Clara Shong, and Dorothy Beld, brothers Lloyd, Ernie, Ervine, Claude, Jim, her parents, Ed and Sophie Nash, step-father George Sankey and son-in-law Daryol (Tex) Byers. She is survived by son Phillip (Sharon) Ellingson, daughters Bev Byers, Judy (Joe) Materna, and Kathy (Zack) Jones, son-in-law Darwin Huiner, brother Arlo (Phyllis) Nash, sisters Thelma Drolc and Yvonne Hendricks, sisters-in-law Nan Nash and Mary Nash, ten grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and dozens of nieces and nephews.

We are grateful for the wonderful memories and she will live forever in her children's hearts.