Elsa J. Wood, age 86, formerly of Brookings, died Thursday, November 4, 2010, at Dougherty Hospice in Sioux Falls. Funeral services will be 11:00 A.M. Monday, November 8, 2010, at First Presbyterian Church in Brookings. Interment will be at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Visitations will be from 4-6 P.M. Sunday at Eidsness Funeral Home in Brookings.

Elsa Louise (Jackson) Wood was born August 11, 1924, at Lafayette, Indiana, to Roger William and Elsa Friedericke (Schwilk) Jackson. She grew up and graduated from high school in Oak Park, Illinois. She received a B.A. degree from Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and a masters degree in plant pathology from the University of Minnesota. On January 23, 1954, she married Leon S. Wood at Oak Park, Illinois. The Woods lived in Brookings, where Elsa was a homemaker and employed at Station Biochemistry at SDSU. Leon died November 20, 1996.

Elsa was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Brookings, where she served as an elder and as an officer of the Presbyterian Women. She was a member of the American Association of University Women. She enjoyed gardening, needlework, sewing, and spending time at her computer.

Survivors include three children: Roger C. Wood of Houston, Texas, Judith Ann Wolfe and her husband Kent of Lexington, South Carolina, and Kent J. Wood and his wife Mary of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandson. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and sister, Sally.