Martha Quade

Martha Evelyn Quade, age 96, of Wilmot, passed away on Sunday, June 25, 2023, at Wilmot Care Center.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, July 8, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Wilmot with Rev Arthur Drehman officiating. Music will be provided by David Quade and Brian Quade and organist Marie Ammann.

Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service.

Burial will be in Garfield Lutheran Cemetery. Pallbearers will be all her grandchildren. Active pallbearers will be David Quade, Brian Quade, Chris Rondeau, Sam Rondeau, Dena Knutson, Charles Quade, Jennifer Quade and Ashley Ruesink. Honorary pallbearers will be Darcy O’Farrell and the staff at Darcy’s Home Health.

The service will be livestreamed and recorded and viewable below this obituary.

Martha Evelyn (King) Quade was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom on March 9, 1927 to Edward and Mary Ann (Johnston) King, the youngest of six children. She grew up on Shuttle Hill in Coleraine, completing Level 8 Plus Tech including sewing and woodworking at school and then worked in a shirt factory during the war. Many times she talked about hiding under a desk as the war plane flew over.

On an outing with a girlfriend, she met a young soldier from the United States at a Portrush, N Ireland café. After writing letters for some time, Private Walter T Quade received a letter from General Dwight D. Eisenhower to “grant him a brief furlough” to enable him to get married on March 5^th, 1945, just up the street from where she lived at Killowen Parish Church. She spent her first anniversary and 19^th birthday traveling with a few hundred other war brides on a ship, the Henry Gibbons, arriving at the port of New York on March 15, 1946 where her husband met her and they traveled to South Dakota. She lived the rest of her life in and around Wilmot, nearly fifty of those years on their farm east of Wilmot.

Missing the opportunity to attend high school due to the war, Evelyn completed her GED in the 1990’s and later took several classes at Harmony Hill in Watertown, SD. In 2005, she was interviewed along with other South Dakota war brides on their experience coming to join husbands they hardly knew and live in unfamiliar surroundings in the United States. The interviews were published by the South Dakota State Historical Society in the fall of 2010.

Evelyn worked a few seasons at the Big Stone Canning factory, processed chickens at a plant in Sisseton, worked at Ike’s Chicken Shack in Browns Valley, MN, and Fairway Grocery Store in Wilmot. For many years she raised hundreds of chickens for butcher to sell spring fryers and sold eggs to the “egg truck” each week, gathering nearly 300 eggs a day. She worked on the farm helping in the fields where neighbors often heard her singing from the tractor. She was still “farming” with a riding lawn mower at 93 when her daughter finally had to stop her from mowing.

After Walter’s death in 1996, she moved into Wilmot and resided there for nearly twenty-five years before moving to the Darcy’s Home Care in Milbank, SD where she remained until entering Hospice.

She enjoyed gardening and raising flowers, knitting sweaters for her kids, and sewing quilts, which she continued to do until she was 95, making quilts for each of her children, grandchildren, and great-grands. She enjoyed classical music all her life, watching British comedy shows and jigsaw puzzles.

For over 50 years she served as a volunteer Cooperative Weather Observer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service daily recording the weather receiving a United States Department of Commerce NOAA’s John Campanius Holm Award and the Edward H. Stoll Award in 2003 with a State of South Dakota Executive Proclamation as Evelyn Quade Day on September 16, 2003 by then Governor Michael Rounds for “braving blinding snowstorms, torrential rains, sub-zero temperature , and extreme winds to provide accurate, timely, and comprehensive observation” for her contributions to accuracy of forecasts and protection of life and property. 

She was a member of the Wilmot American Legion Auxiliary #64, VFW Auxiliary, Wilmot Nutrition Meals, and Wilmot Senior Citizens and was instrumental in starting up a Kitchen band and playing and singing with it throughout the area for several years.

She was a member of Christ Lutheran Church of rural Wilmot before it moved to Wilmot to become Our Savior’s Lutheran where she was a member of the Ladies Aid and a quilter.

Evelyn is survived by her four children: Edward (Marcia) Quade, Lincoln, NE; James (Melody) Quade, Roundup, MT; Cheryl (Scott Bassett) Rondeau-Bassett, Wilmot, SD; and Jonathan (Tammy) Quade, Wilmot, SD.

13 Grandchildren: David (Kristi) Quade; Brian (Amber) Quade, Jennifer Quade, Tamra (Bryan) Knight, Melissa (Mike) Poole, Dena (Ryan) Knutson; Christopher Rondeau, Samuel Rondeau, Daniel (Tausha) Rondeau; Patrick (Susan Worwa) Rondeau; Ashley (Darin Doschadis) Ruesink and Charles (Nicole Hoffman) Quade.

24 Great-grandchildren: Liam Quade, Colin Quade; Anna (Logan) Chitty, Caleb Quade; Felix Quade; Gabriela Kinght; Olivia Poole, Katelyn Poole; Kaylee Knutson, Michael Knutson; Jevon (Sydney) Rondeau; Jessica (Nathan Giachino) Rondeau; Jada (Matthew Morschen) Rondeau; Kiley (Alex) Meyhoefer; Jacob (Rachel Holzem) Rondeau; Mason Rondeau; Dylan (Macy Gilmore) Huff; Qwade Rondeau, Paizley Rondeau, Brayden Ruesink, Brynn Ruesink, Walter Quade and Ryker Quade, plus bonus great-grandchildren: Britten Knight, Taylor Knight, Jade Knight, Amanda Vosberg. Tate Fossen, Zander, Xavier and Zoee Doschadis.

3 Great-great Grandchildren: Dawson Rondeau, Ava Rondeau, and Cameron Chitty.

She was preceded in death by her parents Edward and Mary Ann King; husband Walter Quade; grandchildren Sally Rondeau, Joseph Rondeau; great grandchildren: Richard Quade, Brett Quade; Raven Quade; Siblings: Daisy (Robert) Mullholand, Florida; Elsie (Abie) Simpson, Marie (Roy) Simpson; Sally (James) Lyons all of Northern Ireland; Edward (Mary) King, Liverpool, England; in-laws: Paul and Emma Quade; brother-in-law: Leslie (Amalia living) Quade, Evelyn (Alvin) Greiner.

God bless the memory of Martha Evelyn Quade.