Alma Herman-Brote

ALMA HERMAN-GROTE

Alma Herman-Grote, age 93, of Yankton, SD died on Sunday, May 23, 2010 at her home. Funeral services will be at 2:00 PM, Thursday, May 27, 2010 at the Kulm Congregational Church, Kulm, ND with Rev. Jerry Van Curler officiating. Burial will be in the New Beresina Cemetery at rural Kulm, ND. Visitations with the family present will be at the Kulm Congregational Church of Kulm, ND on Wednesday at noon with a scripture service at 7:30 PM. Visitations will resume two hours prior to the service at the church. Opsahl-Kostel Funeral Home & Crematory of Yankton, SD along with Lisko Funeral Chapel of Edgeley, ND is in charge of arrangements.

Alma Leonita Janke was born on February 18, 1917, at the family farm in rural Kulm, ND to John and Lydia (Conrad) Janke. She grew up on the family farm, and attended the rural grade school two miles from the farm. Alma married Gottlieb G. Herman on November 15, 1936, at the Janke family farm. Alma and Gottlieb farmed 5 miles east of Kulm from 1936 to 1972 when they retired and moved into Kulm, ND. Alma enjoyed being a farm wife, and helped her husband with farming the land. She could plow, disk, or drag a field with her International M tractor as well as any farmhand. She also commented many times about how she and her sister, Edna, helped their father work the land with horses.

When Alma lived in Kulm, she was a member of the 1st Congregational Church, the church Dorcus Society, and sang in the church choir. She was a member of the Harmony Homemakers, and worked part-time in the Kulm Café for several years. Alma and Gottlieb started going to Brownsville, TX in 1972, and then to Leisure World Park in Weslaco, TX in 1979. Alma continued going South after Gottlieb passed away on September 30, 1984. On June 9, 1990, she married Raymond Grote and moved to Storm Lake, Iowa. Alma enjoyed traveling, and she and Ray traveled the southern states and Mexico, and the eastern states as well as going to Germany to see her parents' relatives and their birth places. She traveled to Canada several times to visit her dad's family members. Ray passed away in 1998.

In May, 2007, she moved to Yankton to be near her daughter, Delphine Peterson, and lived in the Memory Lane apartments until her death. She enjoyed visiting with the apartment tenants and enjoyed playing cards, and their many get togethers for food and visiting in the community room. She also enjoyed going to the Senior Center for many activities that they held there.

Thankful for having shared her life are her daughter, Delphine Peterson of Yankton, SD; her two granddaughters: Julie and husband Stuart Lehto of Minneapolis, MN and Pamela and husband Brad Haugen, of Tea, SD; two great grandsons: Oskari Lehto and Torsten Haugen and one sister, Esther (John) Zemansky of Citrus Heights, CA; two step sons: Kermit (Jeanette) Grote of Newell, IA and Keith Grote of Newell, IA; three step daughters: Vicki Sorbe of Albert City, IA, Susan Grote of Des Moines, IA, and Patty Grote of Dallas, TX and step grandchildren and step great grandchildren.

Alma was preceded in death by her two husbands, Gottlieb G. Herman and Raymond Grote; her parents, John and Lydia Janke; five brothers: Emil, Johnnie, Rueben, Milton, and Clifford Janke, and four sisters: Rose Gall, Edna Herrmann, Irma Janke, and Luella Vogel.