Serie A. Getz, 93, formerly of Sioux Falls and Rapid City, died early Saturday, September 27, 2008, at Brookview Manor in Brookings. Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at Ascension Lutheran Church in Brookings. Burial will be in Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, October 1. Visitation will be from 6-8 p.m. on Monday at the Eidsness Funeral Home in Brookings.
Serie Adelia Nelson was born on Jan. 9, 1915, in Jacksonville, Fla. She was the oldest child of Swedish parents who emigrated to America, then to Cuba, then back to America. Her parents lived in Ohio before moving to South Dakota, where they lived in Center, Kimball and Sioux Falls.
Serie graduated from Washington High School in 1933 and worked as a secretary in WPA offices in Mitchell and Sioux Falls. On Sept. 11, 1938, she married John P. Getz. They reared three children in Sioux Falls. In 1968, after taking a motel management course by correspondence, they moved to Texas to work in the hospitality industry. Later they operated motels in Santa Rosa and Tucumcari, N.M., and Powell, Wyo. They retired to Rapid City in 1975, and in 1989 they moved to Brookings. Her husband died in Brookings in 1991.
She was a gifted musician who performed in numerous venues over much of her life. She was first-chair trombone in the Washington High School band in an era when few girls played brass instruments. For a brief period following her graduation, she played trombone in an all-female dance band. She sang in church choirs and large and small singing groups, and was a soloist for scores of weddings, funerals and other events.
Serie was a skilled seamstress who sewed most of her own clothing as well as clothing for her children and grandchildren. In retirement she became very involved in quilting for Lutheran World Relief. She was a member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars auxiliaries, United Commercial Travelers, Augustana Lutheran Church of Sioux Falls, Calvary Lutheran Church of Rapid City, and Ascension Lutheran Church of Brookings.
Survivors include a daughter, Cynthia Harms of Denver, Colo.; two sons, Jack Getz and his wife Joan of Brookings, and Marty Getz of Fairbanks, Alaska; a sister, Mildred Howard of Ferndale, Wash.; two sisters-in-law, Irene Nelson of Northridge, Calif., and Lydia Gordon of Omaha, Neb.; six grandchildren, Tanya Hubbs of Sioux City, Iowa; Teresa Manshardt of Denver, Colo., Suzanne Palmer of Shelton, Conn.; Tim Getz of Costa Mesa, Calif.; Chris Getz of St. Cloud, Minn., and Amanda Enstrom of Eagan, Minn.; three great-grandchildren and one step-great-grandchild. In addition to her parents and husband, she was preceded in death by two brothers.