Adele Oien

DOROTHY MAXINE ADELE (SCKERL) OIEN was the youngest child of the thirteen children born to Max and Marie (Fromberg) Sckerl. She was born on May 29, 1925 on the family farm near Lake City, South Dakota. She attended country school through the 8th grade and continued with high school in Lake City. Her father died when she was 10 and in March of her junior year in high school her mother also passed away. An older brother, Alfred and Lorraine Sckerl, lived in Rapid City at that time and she began her senior year in Rapid City. During that year Alfred obtained a new job and moved with his family to Cincinnati, OH. Adele finished her senior year at Webster High School in Webster, South Dakota and lived with an older sister, Alice and Cornelius Wells.

After graduation Adele moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to again live with Alfred and Lorraine, and took a position in the payroll department at Wright Aeronautical (an airplane engine factory). She worked there during WWII and then returned to South Dakota. Adele enrolled in a bookkeeping program at Nettleton Business College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Following graduation, she worked in the accounting departments of Tuthill Lumber Company and the Sioux Empire Equipment Company. It was during these times that she met a number of women who remained life-long friends.

Adele met Ordell at the popular Arkota Ballroom in Sioux Falls. The couple married on October 1, 1949 at East Nidaros Lutheran Church near Baltic, South Dakota. Adele moved onto the farm near Baltic where Ordell grew up and farmed with his aunt and uncle, Adolph and Carrie Moen. Here they had their two daughters, Danita and Gloria. The family moved to Luverne, Minnesota in 1960, and Adele later took a job at Culligan Water in the office where she worked for 28 years before retiring.

Adele was a member of Grace Lutheran Church where she served as financial secretary for a number of years in the 1960s. She and Ordell enjoyed visiting people, polka music, fishing, playing cards and spending time at their cabin on Lake Sarah. After retiring she participated in quilting and Bible study at Grace and rediscovered a love and enjoyment of reading. She also learned to crochet, and especially enjoyed crocheting afghans for each of her grandchildren and for a number of other relatives and friends. Through all this time, their family was of utmost importance to Adele and Ordell. Adele especially enjoyed blessing her grandchildren with chocolate chip cookies.

Adele lived the last five years at the Oaks apartments in Luverne, where she enjoyed reading, polka music, playing cards, spending time with new and old friends, seeing the countryside, and going out for coffee and breakfast at various restaurants. Sour cream raisin pie was her favorite treat.

Adele passed away unexpectedly with her daughter, Gloria, and special friend, Sharon at her side, at Sanford USD Hospital on Friday, March 8th, 2019 due to complications following emergency surgery. She was 93 years, nine months, and nine days old.

Survivors include her daughter, Gloria (Tom) Wesely of Plymouth, Minnesota and their children, Julie (Kevin) Cody and their daughter, Hannah and son, Micah of Bloomington, Indiana; and Kyle Wesely of Edina, Minnesota; her son-in-law Bob (Julie) Hermann of Buffalo City, Wisconsin; Bob and Danita’s children, Rob (Cari) Hermann and their sons, Will and Lex of Riverside, Illinois; Chris Hermann of Winona, Minnesota; Mark (Andrea) Hermann and their son, Evan and daughter, Camille of Woodbury, Minnesota; Joel (Michelle) Hermann of Kellogg, Minnesota; Tim (Jada) Hermann and their daughter, Harper of Kellogg, Minnesota; special friends, Sharon and Glen Hoekman of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and many nieces and nephews.

Adele was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Ordell, in November of 2009; and a daughter Danita “Dani” Hermann in August of 1986; six brothers, Rudolf, Alfred, Bernard, Herbert, Otto, and Walter Sckerl; and six sisters, Magda Unger, Alice Wells, Adeline Daker, Margarete Rovn, Connie Hammond, and Irene Larson.

Blessed be her memory!