Area Obituaries
Joyce Eleanor
Groseth, 92, went to her heavenly home Tuesday, June 25 at Aurora-Brule Nursing
Home in White Lake. Funeral service will be Tuesday, July 2 at 10:30 am at
Calvary Baptist Church in Platte with burial to follow at 1:30 pm at Ebenezer
Cemetery near Corsica. Visitation will be Monday, July 1 from 5 to 6:30 pm with
a 6:30 pm prayer service at Calvary Baptist Church in Platte. Arrangements by
Koehn Bros. Funeral Home in Armour.
Joyce was born to Harland and Carmen Thompson in Redfield, SD. Her father passed of pneumonia and Carmen remarried Robert Kronwald. The family moved to Britton, SD where Robert passed of a brain tumor. Carmen wanted Joyce to attend Christian schooling so she attended Wessington Springs High School and Wessington Springs College. There her passion for the Lord and music blossomed. She played piano for the men’s quartet and also sang in the ladies quartet. She would drive the choir director crazy as she played piano by ear and did not always keep the same timing as the conductor!
Joyce graduated from Wessington Springs College in June of 1951 and went directly into Nurses Training at Methodist Hospital in Mitchell, SD. This was a continuous three year schooling and there found another passion was surgery. She graduated in June, 1954 and passing her state boards, worked as assistant supervisor on the surgical floor.
Joyce attended the Wesleyan Church in Mitchell and, by this time, her mother and four sisters had also moved to Mitchell. She met Mearl Groseth in church and would accompany him on the piano as they performed for church services. They were married November 22, 1956 which happened to be Thanksgiving Day as well as a blizzard! Joyce turned in her stethoscope to become a farm wife. Deborah was born November 17, 1957 and Steven joined the family on August 15, 1960.
She added business woman and bookkeeper to her resume when they owned and operated Groseth Implement in Armour, SD from 1963 thru 1978. They had never left the farm and returned back to it full time in 1978. Joyce said “When you are a farmer, you never retire!”
Joyce loved being a grandma to Alicia, Laura and Brin and later a great-grandma to Kollins, Casen and Thea. They always brought smiles when they were doing “crazy stuff” at the farm. Joyce enjoyed the red cardinals that would sing outside her window. She continued piano playing while she and Mearl performed in solos, duets and quartets. Both Joyce and Mearl were baptized on February 12, 1982 at Calvary Baptist Church in Platte.
Joyce was preceded in death by her “Honey” Mearl. Joyce is survived by daughter Deborah (Brent) Langford, son Steven (Cindy) Groseth, grand daughters Alicia (Tyler) Meiers, Laura Groseth, Brin Nesryn, great-grand daughters Kollins Fink, Thea Meiers, great-grandson Casen Meiers, sisters Carol Wilson and Roberta Christian as well as many nieces and nephews
Because of Joyce’s assurance of Eternal Life upon departing she would say “See Ya later alligator” and we would reply “After a while crocodile!”
In lieu of memorials, the family requests donations to the Ebenezer Cemetery Perpetual Fund.
