Donald Eugene Schmidt

Donald E. Schmidt, age 78, rural Willow Lake, died peacefully early Friday morning, April 20, 2012 surrounded by many family members. Visitation will be held on Monday from 5-7 PM with a public Prayer Service beginning at 6PM all in the Willow Lake Evangelical Lutheran Church (WELS). The visitation will continue on Tuesday morning after 9AM in the Church. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday at 11:00 AM in the Willow Lake Evangelical Lutheran Church (WELS) with the Reverend Mark Guthmiller officiating. Burial with full military rites provided by the Johnny Fonken American Legion Post #113 of Willow Lake and the Army National Guard Honor Guard Detail will be in the Collins Cemetery at Willow Lake. Music will be provided by Deanna Martens as the organist with special music by Camille Schmidt Wallin. All of Don's nieces and nephews should consider themselves as honorary casketbearers. The active casketbearers will be Mark Lamb, Bob Syring, Harlan Haug, Larry Taschner, Jerry & Tom Herker, Curtis Lamb and Alan Hamre. He was born Donald Eugene Schmidt in Hague Township, west of Willow Lake, on December 9, 1933, the son of Menno H and Letha (Ackerman) Schmidt. He attended country school for a brief time until his family moved closer to Willow Lake where he finished his schooling, graduating from Willow Lake High School in 1952. He worked on the family farm before being called to serve his country in the United States Navy during the Korean War. Following his discharge, he returned to the Willow Lake area. On November 4, 1956 he was united in marriage to Helen Schanbeck at Clark. The couple has lived and farmed on the same farm site in Collins Township since that time. Don was a man of many ideas to say the least; he was the first potato grower in southern Clark County, in fact he was a "first guy". He and a brother MH (Babe) started an ethanol plant at the farm site and he was one of the first to have all irrigated land, in fact, the year he got it all installed, he never had to use it because we had plenty of moisture - he would say, "That's my luck" and smile. Don was a great one for reinventing most anything on any piece of equipment, thinking, maybe this way would work better, and most times, he was right. At the age of 9 he built a rack for his little red wagon, just so he could haul hay more efficiently. In the community, he was a member of the Johnny Fonken American Legion Post #113 and was a proud supporter of high school basketball, attending many of the games. He enjoyed watching baseball, both in person and on the television, besides his more than once watching of each episode of Law & Order. In 1972 Don and Helen started the family musical group - Schmidt Country Band. The family band played dance music for 14 years in all parts of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. In that time, there were only eight Saturday nights the band didn't perform. Don played guitar and accordion in the band but could also play drums and piano. In his spare time he loved to play word search games. He was a member of the Willow Lake Evangelical Lutheran Church. Preceding him in death were his parents, a daughter, Connie, siblings, Melvin, LeRoy, Leo, Harvey, MH (Babe), Larry and Grace. Grateful for having shared his life is his wife of over 55 years, Helen of Willow Lake, children, Mary Schmidt of Sioux Falls, Danny Schmidt and Amy Steffensen of Willow Lake and Camille Schmidt Wallin (Chris) of Madison, TN. He also leaves 7 grandchildren, Dennis, Wendy, Dustin, Jaci, Lane, Sierra and Stephan and several great-grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Phyllis Schmidt of Willow Lake and a brother-in-law, John Tomasich of Shawno, WI. You are also welcome to visit the Caring Bridge site for Don. www.caringbridge.org/visit/DonaldSchmidt (copy and paste in your browser) The Furness Funeral Home of Clark is serving the family.