Marcella M Gross

Marcella M. Gross, age 74, Turton, died in the Jenkins Living Center at Watertown early Sunday morning, August 13, 2017 after a hard fought and courageous battle due to cancer.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, August 17, 2017 from 5-7PM at the Furness Funeral Home at Clark and after 1PM at the Church in Crocker on Friday.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, August 18, 2017 at 2PM in the Crocker Lutheran Church at Crocker with Minister Marion Grimes officiating. Music will be provided by Wendy Christman. The active casketbearers will be her grandsons, Alex, Adam, and Riley Reppe, Tyler, Terry, Brad, Tucker, and Hayden Gross. Her granddaughters-in-law and the great-grandchildren will serve as honorary casketbearers. Burial will follow in the Prairie Hill Cemetery at Bradley. Following the burial, a lunch will be served at the Bradley Community Center.

She was born Marcella Mae Stern on the Stern Family farm near Crandall, SD on February 22, 1943, the eldest child of Ralph and Pearl (Regnier) Stern. She attended school in the Crandall/Conde/Crocker area.  In 1961 Marcella graduated with honors as the Valedictorian of her class at Conde High School.

On June 4, 1961 she was united in marriage to Gordon Gross at the Crocker Lutheran Church. The couple moved to Lead, SD where she was a stay at home mom. The family then moved to Belvidere, IL where Gordon worked in an automobile factory. Upon returning to this area, Marcella worked at the  cafés in Conde and Bath and then along with her daughter, Tammy and her mother, Pearl, at the café in Bristol.  In April of 1979, she began work at the Farmer's  State Bank in Turton,  retiring in the early 2000's after nearly 25 years of employment. Marcella was not one to just sit around, so in 2007 she went to work at Herberger's in the Watertown Mall where she was the fragrance counter manager, a job she thoroughly loved. What a joy she had visiting with customers, getting them to try different perfumes and colognes. She has continued to work those counters until recently when she took a leave of absence due to health reasons.

In her free time, Marcella enjoyed working in her gardens, both flower and vegetable, canning, and being with her dogs. If it weren't for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, her dogs were a priority. In years past, she will long be remembered for her dancing abilities with her husband Gordon, they loved to dance. Family time also was very important to her.

Preceding her in death were her parents and a nephew, Jim Stern.

Survivors include her husband, Gordon of Watertown, children, Tammy (Dan) Reppe of Conde, Jeff (Linda) Gross of Watertown, and Bill (Lori) Gross of Sioux Falls; 8 grandsons, and 11 great-grandchildren. She also leaves siblings, Marvin "Bud" (Marilyn) Stern of Conde, Ordean (Sue) Stern of South Shore, Patricia "Pat" (Dennis) Flatten, and Gloria (Allen) Grewe all of Clark and a host of nieces, nephews,  extended family, and friends, especially her Herberger's family.