Lois L. Monahan, age 87 of Watertown, passed away Thursday, March 23, 2023 at Prairie Lakes Hospital.
Funeral services will be 10:30 am, Saturday, April 15, 2023 at New Helgen Lutheran Church in Florence, SD.
The service will be live streamed via Facebook, New Helgen Florence.
Visitation will be 5-7:00pm, Monday, April 3, 2023 at Wight & Comes Funeral Chapel in Watertown.
Interment will be at Bergan Cemetery on Friday, May 12, 2023.
Lois Lavon Kannegieter was born on January 27, 1936 at the farm home of Art and Olive (Shurr) Kannegieter near Willow Lake, South Dakota. She was the second oldest born into a family of six children joining siblings, Harold, Clifford, Ruth, Marlyn and Nola. She spent her young life three miles north of Willow Lake on the farm and attended the Anderson school for two years before moving with her family into the town of Willow Lake. She attended school in Willow Lake from third grade until her senior year when she graduated in 1954. Over the years, she had attended many of the annual alumni banquets.
She worked for a time at Custer State park after which she moved to Watertown and worked in the IBM department at Midland National Life insurance company. She met Gene Monahan on her birthday in 1955 when she was out with friends at a dance held on a stormy night in January at The Playhouse in Clark. He had seen her before at a movie (he said later), was very interested and asked her to dance over and over again. The couple continued to date and after a few months courtship decided to get engaged. They were married on November 20, 1955 at the First Presbyterian Church in Willow Lake by Reverend R.E.
Niebruegge. They began their life together on the Monahan family farm north of Watertown in Germantown Township. Lois worked alongside her husband on the farm driving tractors and grain trucks and also did all of the mowing on the farm.
Since a young girl she enjoyed sewing and made a lot of her dresses and outfits in high school as well as for her family and granddaughters over the years. She also enjoyed art and chorus in high school, was a good cartoonist, and could play the piano and organ "by ear", once she got the song in her head, without reading the music. She would sometimes play songs for the residents of Cedar View by memory.
She was confirmed and was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Willow Lake. After her marriage, she became a member of the Bergan Lutheran Church near Florence where she served as Sunday School teacher and Superintendent and was a member of their choir.
She belonged for many years in the Laugh and Learn Extension club and the Chataway Extension Club.
In 2007, Lois and Gene sold the farm and moved into Watertown.
Gene passed away in July of 2016. She continued to live in their home up until the past several months, when she resided at Cedar View Memory Care in Watertown.
Left to carry on and cherish her memory and teachings are her three children, Kimberly Harrington of Raymond, Ryan Monahan of Watertown and Julie (Brian) Olson of Watertown. Her eight grandchildren, Brandon Monahan, Kelsi (Nathan) Arbach, Jacob (Britany Gullickson) Harrington, Bradley Monahan, Brett (Kailer Overman) Monahan, Katie (Cullen) Mack, Lacey (Jerry) Lohr, and Andrew (Brandi Schuster) Olson. She leaves behind five great grandchildren, Drew Arbach, Jason Arbach, Evan Arbach, Avery Monahan and Harlan Mack and four sisters-in-law Eunice (Monahan) Dahl, Crystal Kannegieter, Carol Kannegieter and Marivonne Bastian.
She was preceded in death by her husband Gene, her parents, Art and Olive Kannegieter, one son-in-law Douglas Harrington, two sisters, Ruth "Buzz" Bastian and Nola (Lee) Goodman, three brothers, Clifford Kannegieter and one sister-in-law Marlene Kannegieter, Harold Kannegieter, and Marlyn Kannegieter, and sisters and brothers-in-law, Jerry Dahl, Leone and Jay Brekken, Shirley and Norman Sandager, Sherman Monahan, and one great niece Lindsey Masterson.