Lois Krull

Lois Joanne Krull, of Hartford, South Dakota passed away at the Avantara Nursing home in Sioux Falls on September 5, 2024 at the age of 88.  Funeral services will be held at 11 am at Kinzley Funeral Home in Salem with visitation to begin at 10 am.  A luncheon will follow immediately at Christ Lutheran Church.  A private family committal service will be held at Wildwood Cemetery in Salem.

Lois was born June 11, 1936, in a farmhouse near Montrose, South Dakota to Francis and Lenora Janisch. When Lois was six, her mother passed away. She and her older brother Donald were taken in by their grandparents where they grew up on the family farm. Lois always spoke fondly of her childhood. The farm provided endless opportunities to play and explore and she flourished in her grandparents’ loving home.

Lois attended country school from first to fifth grade, often walking there and back, even though it was more than two miles from the farm. Eventually she went to town school and graduated from Montrose High in 1954.

After graduation, Lois worked as a waitress at the Ortman Café in Canistota. Eventually she would meet a young soldier at the Montrose Roller Rink. The story goes that Lois was not a particularly skilled skater and every time she fell, the young soldier was there to pick her up.  Despite the awkward meeting, the duo found love and on January 6th, 1956, Lois and her attentive soldier, Rodney Krull were united in marriage.

Lois and Rodney began their life together on a farm outside Salem, SD before eventually moving into town. By 1971, Rodney’s job with the South Dakota Army National Guard offered a position that moved their growing family to Hartford, SD. There, they made their life-long home and raised their four children. Education was always a priority in the Krull home, and one of Lois’s biggest points of pride was that all four of her children graduated from Augustana University.

Even with her full-time Mom duties, Lois consistently held-down some sort of job to help her family. At one time she baked pies for the local bowling alley. Lois’s pie-making skills were legendary, although it was a long-held family joke that she was never quite satisfied with how the crusts turned out. After moving to Hartford, Lois took a full-time position at Kmart, where she worked for 24 years. She famously arrived for work 30 minutes early every day, so she could straighten up the break room, check her appearance in the mirror, and then punch in. She wore the red vest with pride before finally retiring in 2001.

In later life, Lois was able to focus fully on the thing she loved the most – her family. Krull/Janisch “doings” were her favorite times, as she doted on the ever-growing assortment of grandchildren and great-grandchildren whom she “loved like the chickens” and decorated her life. In addition to her own, Lois frequently opened her heart and dinner table to extended family and friends. Many nieces, nephews, neighbor kids, and even the occasional college roommate far from home, found comfort in her hospitality.

Lois was preceded in death by her husband Rodney, her brother Donald, and her daughter Gina Ditmanson. She is survived by her half-sister Carol Glantz (Don Kleinjan), Volga, SD; her children Richard Krull, Hartford, SD; Stephanie (Shawn) Foy, Sioux Falls, SD; Bridget (John) Nichols, Sioux Falls, SD, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.