Ida Roseland

Mass of Christian Burial was held at 2:00 p.m., Friday, June 25, 2010 at the St. Thomas Catholic Church in Faulkton with Father Joji Itukulapati officiating. Burial followed in at St. Anthony’s Catholic Cemetery in Hoven. A rosary service was held at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, June 24, 2010 at the Luce Funeral Home in Faulkton with visitation one hour prior.

She was born on a farm in Potter County, South Dakota on April 28, 1920. She was the youngest of four children born to William and Anna Marie (Maltaverne) Lemler. Due to her mother’s poor health, she was raised in her early years by her maternal grandparents, Josephine and Touissant Maltaverne in Hoven. They had arrived from France in 1910 and so Ida grew up listening to French being spoken in the home and developing a deep fondness for the Hoven area, which included the Cathedral on the Prairie. One of her children’s more memorable Christmas Eves was attending Christmas Eve Mass at the Hoven Cathedral in the 1980s and being shown “the family pew” where she and her grandparents would kneel and pray those many years ago.

She attended a country schoolhouse, Fayette School, graduating with an eighth grade education in seven years. She was thirteen years old and home on the farm with her siblings when their grandmother came out of the house to tell them that their mother had passed away. Subsequently, Ida did not attend high school, but stayed home to help her sister Agnes with the housework and meals. One of her lifelong regrets was not achieving a high school education. It was later a source of great pride to her that all three of her children became college educated, with Masters degrees.

On Pearl Harbor Day, she, her sister, brothers William and Raymond were home when a neighbor came to visit. They had just heard the news of Pearl Harbor on the radio and all were in a state of shock; it did not seem real.

Brother William enlisted in the army. Brother Raymond stayed home to manage the farm. Her sister Agnes and she left by train to San Diego to work in the airplane factories. They rented a room for $10 a week. This included two meals a day and the landlady did the wash, such as it was. Everyone owned two dresses in those days.

She attended classes at Balboa Park for four weeks, and then went to work at Consolidated, working the 2:30 until 11PM swing shift. She worked with airplane gas bags. They needed to be cleaned out very well, a small door bolted on, then hoses were attached. She was proud that her work always passed inspection.

On weekends if they were not too tired, there were always places to go like Balboa Park, the zoo, Coronado Island and Tijuana , Mexico. There were always Saturday night dances in downtown San Diego and of course the movies. They lived near North Park; it was like a small town back home.

On VE Day, she was at a movie in downtown San Diego. They stopped the movie and ran a message saying that the war had ended. Everyone was quiet. The marine she was with said he needed to report back to camp. He took her to the bus stop and left to return to camp.

She stayed on in San Diego for awhile, working in a drug store, at a soda jerk fountain. After three years in California, she and Agnes decided it was time to go back home to South Dakota. She met her husband-to-be at another soda jerk fountain, this one in Gettysburg.

Melvin F. (Bud) Roseland had “tagged along” with his brother Bevin, who was dating Vivian, her first cousin. In the post World War II boom, they were married soon after, on Feb 1, 1947. Soon, Bev and Vivian were living across the gravel road from Bud and Ida, on the farm near Seneca. Six baby boomers came along and the double cousins enjoyed growing up together and being part of an extended family.

They lived on the farm for 37 years, many of those years without running water. Life consisted of packing lunch pails, getting the kids to school, Sunday mass and Wednesday night Catechism and all the other little details of farm life. She and Bud moved into Faulkton to enjoy retirement in the spring of 1984. It was a sad event when Bud passed away unexpectedly in November of that year.

Ida lived on in the house on Saint John Street, enjoying family gatherings, and watching her three grandsons grow up. She moved into assisted living in June of 2005. She appreciated the good people at “The Meadows” and enjoyed the simplicity of her apartment. She moved into the Faulkton nursing home in June of 2008 where she was blessed to receive loving care.

She was preceded in death by her parents, William and Anna Marie Lemler, her stepmother, Maude Lemler, her sister Agnes Lemler, her brothers Raymond and William and her husband Bud. She leaves behind three beloved children and their families: Kay Roseland of Minneapolis, Bruce (Barb) Roseland, Jane Roseland (Allen Campbell) and grandsons, Aaron, Adam and Blake.

Luce Funeral Home of Faulkton has been entrusted with Ida’s arrangements.