LaVonne “Vonnie” Jean (Weideman) Woodring, 75, of Athol, SD, passed away surrounded by her loving family on Friday, April 8, 2022, at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD. Vonnie’s final act of kindness was to give the gift of life through organ and tissue donation.
Visitation will be 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., with family present, on Tuesday, April 19, at Hyke Funeral Home in Redfield. A prayer service, rosary, and time of sharing will start at 7:00 p.m.
Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, April 20, at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Redfield. Lunch and fellowship will follow the funeral service. The interment will take place at 1:00 p.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Athol.
Both the prayer service and Mass of Christian Burial will be live-streamed to the funeral home’s website, below Vonnie’s obituary. Hyke Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements (www.hykefuneralhome.com).
Vonnie was born on January 21, 1947, as the first child of Dale and Jean (Wetzler) Weideman.
She attended the Athol Grade School for grades one through six. She rode the school bus to Northville to attend Northville Northwestern for grades seven through twelve. After graduating in May 1965, Vonnie began working in the Spink County Equalization Office where she worked for 13 years. She also worked for Montgomery Ward catalog company and State Farm Insurance through the mid-1990s.
On February 19, 1966, Vonnie married Robert (Bob) Woodring and became a farmer’s wife. She was a good cook and took many meals to the field during harvest season. She loved flowers and always had big pots of petunias in her yard and in front of the garage. During the years she had the huge gardens she always had flower borders on all sides. She was very happy when Jared built a new house for his family that put the grandchildren within walking distance of her house.
Vonnie enjoyed watching the blue jays that liked living in her backyard. She also enjoyed playing board games, crossword puzzles, and jigsaw puzzles, and was very good at word puzzles that required unscrambling letters.
She really enjoyed attending her children’s sporting events. She later was happy to be able to attend many of her grandchildren’s events.
Vonnie and Bob took many fun and memorable vacations. They went to Belgium while their son, Dan was stationed there. They took many trips to Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana to see relatives.
Bob and Vonnie moved into the Eastern Star Independent Apartments in March of 2018. They made many new friends there and enjoyed participating in the many activities, especially playing Bingo with her daughter Sandy.
Vonnie is survived by Bob, her husband of 56 years, her children: Sandra, Daniel (Sabine), and Jared (Roxanne) plus four grandchildren that she was very proud of: Lincoln, Isabelle, Bryan, and Kody. Also surviving Vonnie are her siblings: Connie, Gordon, Dennis, and Donald (Shelly), and her in-laws: Arnold (Lorraine) Woodring, Marvin (Linda) Woodring, John (Anna) Woodring, and sister-in-law Donna Woodring. She has many surviving nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents Dale and Jean Weideman, brothers-in-law Clint and Pat, Godchild James, nephew Jacob, and niece Sara.
