Louella Rosemary Jellema

July 15, 1933 ~ February 28, 2020

On February 28, 2020, Louella Jellema, 86, Brandon, was reunited with the love of her life, her parents, many friends and family members and was able to meet her Savior in Heaven, after complications from a stroke at the Sanford USD Medical Center, in Sioux Falls.

Visitation will be 5-7pm, Friday, March 6, 2020, at Heartland Funeral Home.  Funeral Services will be 10:00am, Saturday, March 7, also at Heartland Funeral Home.  Interment will be at Hills of Rest Cemetery in Sioux Falls.

Louella Rosemary Fedt, the oldest child and only daughter of Thomas and Mamie (Lahti) Fedt, was born on July 15, 1933. Growing up in Lake Norden, SD, she was very active in school, participating in band, theater and was a cheerleader at Lake Norden High School. She also loved singing and performing in choir. Louella and her brother, Darrell, would often perform duets. She was a self-taught musician and could play pretty much any instrument without a reading note. The accordion and piano where two of her favorite instruments which she still enjoyed playing. After one piano lesson, the piano teacher told her father that there was nothing he could teach her. She enjoyed spending time on her father’s farm and helping out at the café uptown.

After graduating high school, Louella worked as a bank teller in Chicago and Sioux Falls. While working in Sioux Falls, she met the love of her life, Donald Jellema. They married in 1953 and started their amazing 64 year journey in life together. As an army wife, Louella saw the world with her husband and family. In 1959, she made the difficult journey to Germany, to join him, traveling with their three children who were 6 months, 2 and 4 years old. Their travels brought them to Texas, New Jersey, Louisiana, Germany, Virginia, Chicago, Washington DC, Hawaii and back to South Dakota to retire near family.

Louella enjoyed being able to be home to raise her children while they were growing up. She did work outside of the home while in Chicago at Cid Air Structure where she made two very special lifelong friends, Pauline and Jack.  While in Hawaii, Louella took a cake decorating class which would lead a new and wonderful career. She taught cake decorating over the years and built quite a business from her home after moving to Brandon. Many people may not have recognized her name, but sure knew who the cake lady was!!! She was honored when Governor George Mikkelson, after tasting her cake, asked her to do his inauguration cake if he was elected. He was. And she did. Also, while in Brandon, she was excited to be able to return to her first career of being a bank teller for a few years.

Over the years, Louella was active in the PTA, NCO Wives Club, Republican Woman’s Club, The Garden Club at Bethany Meadows, Daughters of Norway and volunteered as a pianist at Helping Hands, Bethany Meadows, Grace Community Church and the Union Gospel Mission. Over the years, she and Don along with family and friends, also played music together at several different functions and at one time went by the name The Last Resort. They played at a few political functions as well as at the Branding Iron in Brandon. She also enjoyed going to the spring musicals every year at BVHS.

Two of Louella’s passions were politics and her church. She volunteered for both, doing whatever she could. She worked at the polls for several years for every election and volunteered doing whatever she could to support her favorite candidates. She would even get her granddaughters involved. She and Don appeared in commercials for Senator Thune when he first ran for office. She walked the streets of Brandon with George Mikkelson when he first ran for governor and was able to shake President Reagan’s hand when he was visiting Sioux Falls. At Grace Community Church, she put the bulletins together each week, played the piano every Sunday, planned conferences and sang special music at church as well as at conferences. She loved the Lord and loved learning everything she could. She saw herself as a sponge soaking up the word of the Lord. She loved her church family very much and doing whatever she could to bring the word of the Lord to others.

Thankful for having shared her live are her 3 children, Joel (Wendy), Brandon, Kevin (Cheryl), Ft. Meyers, FL, and Laurel, Sioux Falls; three grandchildren, Joshua Bittner, Dell Rapids, Sondrae (Jacob) Spade, Garretson, and Ashley (Jeramiah) Zuraff, Brandon; and seven great-grandchildren Kailyn, Kylie, Arianna, Ellianna, Jackson, Nolan and Hadley; one brother, Darrell (Jean) Fedt; and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and a host of friends.

She is proceeded in death by her husband, her parents and her best friend of 40+ years Pauline Boland Evens. She and Pauline are sharing a Pepsi right now!!

In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been set up for donations to Louella’s favorite charities.

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