Marcella Eleanora Loomis

Mrs. Marcella Loomis, age 89, Garden City, widow of Milo Loomis died in a Clark care center late Wednesday night, November 12, 2008 after a long illness.

Funeral services will be held on Monday, November 17, 2008 at 11AM in the United Methodist Church at Garden City with the Reverend Warren Rhodes officiating. Burial will follow in the Garden City Cemetery.

Visitation will be on Sunday from 4-6PM at the Furness Funeral Home in Clark and after 10AM at the Church on Monday.

She was born at Mentor, MN, on February 13, 1919, the daughter of Guy and Rachel (Allen) Tipton. The family moved to South Dakota when she was three years old to a farm south of Clark. She attended country school south of Clark and then graduated from Clark High School in 1936. Following her schooling, she worked for Grace Nerger at Nerger's Store in Clark.

On December 30, 1941 she was united in marriage to Milo D. Loomis at Tacoma, WA. He entered the armed forces shortly after their marriage and after his discharge in 1945, they moved to Garden City and he became a partner in Loomis Brothers Road Construction, where she assisted with the bookkeeping. While living in Garden City she was employed by various businesses' including the Garden City School where she cooked, riding the potato harvester for Howard Robb and also was a local Avon representative. For some time she also worked for the Home Health Care taking care of people's personnel needs while in their homes – shopping, cleaning and general care. Milo died on January 2, 1987 at home.

After her husband's death, she continued living in Garden City, playing countless hours of cards with the Chat-A-Wee Club which she was a longtime member of. She also enjoyed many games of Bingo & Keno, knitting, crocheting, playing Domino's and reading stories to the grandchildren. She thoroughly loved being with and helping people, visiting, cooking and baking. In 1996 she moved into the Garden City Manor and then in August of 2005, she suffered a massive stroke and became a resident of the Jenkins Living Center at Watertown. On December 23 of 2005 she moved to the Golden Living Center at Clark.

She was a longtime member of the United Methodist Church at Garden City where she took an active part in the circle groups of the Church and also the United Methodist Women. Marcella was very proud of the fact she was a 60 year plus member of the Garden City American Legion Auxiliary.

Grateful for having shared in her life are her children, Rachelle (Jeff0 Stricherz of Sioux Falls, twins, Douglas M (Peggy) Loomis and Deborah (David) Waples all of Garden City, 10 grandchildren, Heidi, Lee, Brad, Jorden, Abby, Alyssa, Amanda, Matthew, Ashley and Shawn and a brother, Allen (Shirley) Tipton of Clark and nieces, nephews and cousins.

Preceding her in death were her parents, husband, a sister, Marjorie (Ed) Seefeldt and nephews, Kenny Seefeldt and Scott Tipton.