Raymond Anthony DeKing

January 10, 1937 ~ August 11, 2020

Raymond DeKing, 83, Sioux Falls, died Tuesday, August 11, 2020, at the Good Samaritan Center in Sioux Falls.

Memorial Services will be held at 3pm, Saturday, August 22, 2020, at Heartland Funeral Home.  Visitation with family present will begin at 1pm.

Raymond Anthony DeKing was born on January 10, 1937, in Marshall, MN, to Samuel and Johnna (Masarek) DeKing. Ray was one of five children. Their father died when Ray was just 5 years old. When their mother remarried, they lived on a farm near Marshall, MN. He grew up helping his stepfather on the farm doing all kinds of jobs. He was the first of his family to graduate high school. After graduating from Marshall High School, Ray held various jobs. These jobs included working at and owning a gas station. Most of Ray’s jobs were related to getting things from one point to another driving truck.  One of his first jobs after the farm was driving for milk producers who would load his truck to take to the processing centers. 

On May 17, 1958, in Morgan, MN, Ray married the love of his life, Carol Ricke. The couple made their home in Marshall and to this blessed union was born three children: Daniel, Michele, and Scott. Ray and Carol’s home was the most popular house in the neighborhood when he would pull in with the Henry’s Candy and Cigarette truck. All the kids in the area got excited when they saw that truck and Ray come home. They knew a treat was going to be theirs shortly. Ray loved to treat the kids! 

            In 1968, Ray and Carol moved their young family to Sioux Falls, SD. This move was also the beginning of a new truck route with Purolator Courier, carrying bank documents to processing centers, that Ray would drive for over a decade.  Ray was a driver for them until the early 80s, when he then began driving for Dizco, hauling mail from Sioux Falls to Murdo, SD. He drove this route for twenty years before his failing health demanded he gives up his long career as a driver.  As a driver, his eyes were always on the road and he would often stop to check out things that others had lost.  Sometimes, it was useful items like a bag of coins, that he used to buy his daughter a new bike. Other times, not such a nice find, but it was all part of the adventure.

            During the years, Ray and his family had many camping and fishing experiences. They would catch fish regularly and release them back to the water because no one wanted to clean them. Ray also was an amazing storyteller! He loved to see just how much he could get the grandchildren to believe. Some of the grandchildren were more gullible than others. Telling his stories was one of his ways of having fun with them.  He loved to collect things and had an extensive pen collection from various places he had been. Hats, movies, video games, and music CDs were among the items he collected. Ray loved his family beyond any of his collections and would share anything he had with them. When he noticed some of those loved ones were not returning their borrowed items, a system had to be devised to make sure he got his music, games, or videos back.  This system was called the Grandpop-n-go which ensured he knew just who had what. Ray loved to play bingo and made sure he played at least a couple of times a week. He had a lot of people who enjoyed his company and were drawn to him. One of his prized wins, after becoming a resident of a nursing home, was a box of “Puffs Kleenex” because the kind they provided at the home were the scratchy kind. Ray loved to watch races and any of the old Westerns on tv, but his favorite was the series “Gunsmoke” because something good always came in the end. Listening to the old country singers was something Ray enjoyed throughout his life. In his younger years, he enjoyed turning a wrench and helping in the pits of local racetracks.  

       Ray will be deeply missed by his wife, Carol DeKing, Sioux Falls; two children, Daniel (Kim) DeKing, Sioux Falls, and Michele (Charles) Thompson, Sioux Falls; five grandchildren, Nicole (Tyler) Neal, Jessica (Will) Sechser, Matthew (Kara) Thompson, Joe DeKing, and Sally (Michael) Ackerman; seven great-grandchildren: Aidan, Maia, and Owen Fritz, Spencer and Charlie Sechser, and Jaiden and Justin Thompson; one sister, Ramona (William) Vander Brink, Sioux Falls; and many nieces, nephews and a host of friends.

     Ray was preceded in death by one son, Scott DeKing, his parents, Sam and Johanna (Masarek) DeKing, and three brothers, Richard Deking, Roy DeKing, and Earl DeKing.

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