Elvira Eaker, age 83, of Madison, SD, passed away at the Bethel Lutheran Home in Madison on Friday, May 8, 2020 from a battle with metastatic breast cancer that lasted more than a decade.

A service to honor her life will be postponed until allowed by pandemic reopening plans.  She will be interred at the Bethphage Lutheran Memorial Garden in Lincolnton, North Carolina.  Arrangements are entrusted with Weiland Funeral Chapel.  Online condolences can be sent at www.weilandfuneralchapel.com

Elvira Mildred Rioux was born May 17, 1936 in Anoka, Minnesota, the daughter of Howard & Frances (Edwards) Rioux.  She grew up in Baudette, MN and graduated from Baudette High School in 1954 with a desire to join the Air Force and travel the world. Her first move was to Auburn, Washington where in 1959 she met John Eaker an Airman from North Carolina. They wed on July 1, 1960 and began their world travels in Washington where daughter Nita was born. On one of their several stints in Florida, they resided in the Keys where son Jerald was born. They also lived for several years in California, Taiwan, Germany, and Ohio before finally settling in Cherryville, North Carolina in 1979.

In Cherryville, she sang in the choir at Bethpage Lutheran Church and volunteered in the local schools. In 2003, Elvira and John moved to Madison, SD to be closer to her brothers and their families.  Elvira sought to give back wherever possible and always decorated their mint green house on liberty avenue as festively as possible at Christmas time.  She was an active member of St. John Lutheran Church and spent a great deal of time working in the clothing donation room.  Elvira loved word puzzles, playing games with her family and had a special fondness for Canasta. Elvira never stopped traveling either to see her children or to other parts of the world.


She is survived by her daughter-Nita Caroline (Jurgen) Jost of Hoffman Estates, IL and their three children-Phillip Michael, Tiffany Amanda and Patrick Stuart; her son-Jerald Russell (Hunter Blanton) Eaker of Pittsboro, NC and their two children-Corrina Caroline & Tristan Forrest; three brothers-Dwight Rioux of Missoula, Montana, Kerry Rioux of Baudette, Minnesota, and Kent Rioux of Baudette, Minnesota and many nieces & nephews. 

Elvira was preceded in death by her parents; husband-John; and her brothers-Keith, Jack, Don, Virgil, and Richard. 

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