View Service Folder For Gertrude

Funeral services for Gertrude Vander Wal, age 95, of Pollock will be at 10:30 AM, Saturday, January 12, 2019 at the Pollock Presbyterian Church. Burial will be in the Spring Valley Cemetery under the direction of Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge. Visitation will be at 6 PM Friday with a prayer service at 7 PM at the church. Gertrude passed away Wednesday, January 2, 2019 at the Strasburg Care Center, in Strasburg, ND.

Gertrude Josephine Simpson was born October 26, 1923 in Puyallup, WA to Samuel Daniel Simpson and Emma "Cleora" (Pier) Simpson. She was from a large family of ten children. She grew up in Hoodsport, WA. At the age of 12, she started to babysit and do housekeeping for others. In the summers, she and her sisters, would work in the berry fields.

Gertrude Josephine Simpson married Fletcher Vander Wal on October 12,1942 and made their home in Shelton, Wa. Fletcher as many men in WW11, became a soldier in the Army .During that time Gertrude worked in factories, raised her daughter Susie, and waited for Fletcher to come home. By the time he got home she had bought a house with all its furnishings and still had all of his army checks in the Bank. They had their second daughter Velma, in Shelton, Wa before they moved to Pollock, SD in the spring of 1947. They ran the garage in the old town of Pollock. They also helped run Fletchers fathers farm in North Dakota. When the old town of Pollock moved up Gertrude worked at the garage with Fletcher and his sister Gertie(Vander Wal) Severson.

Gertrude was very talented and could do almost anything. She operated a road maintainer for their Construction Company(Vander Wal Construction) while Fletcher drove the catapillar. She also surveyed the dams and dugouts. She loved to help people. She cut hair, altered clothes, sewed cheerleader uniforms, painted, made porcelain dolls and later in life babysat many of the kids in town. She donated most of the dolls she made to the Hospital Bazaar, or to people she thought needed a hug (widows etc). She also painted 12 pictures of the old Presbyterian Church for Pastor Cedar's family. One still Hangs in the Presbyterian Church in Pollock. Gertrude loved to swim, tap dance and do the irish jig. She told such fun stories of her youth. When friends of her children would come over she would make homemade ice cream and taffy for them to pull. In the summers she would visit Washington and Oregon and (in later) years in the winter she would go to Arizona with her sister Betty Mills. When she would go to the west coast she would love to paint with her sister Velma, and meet family at Potlatch for the annual family reunion. In 2008 she entered the Herried Good Samaritan Center for a year before moving to the Strasburg Care Center where she has since resided.

Survived by six daughters, Susie (Doug) Lidstone of Minnetonka, MN, Velma (LeRoy) Van Vugt of Omaha, NE, Patricia (Don) Larson, Carol (Harlow) Larson both of Pollock, SD, Louise (Wade) Acheson of Mobridge, SD, Betty (Duane) Dyk of Strasburg, ND, and one son Warren, (Bernice) Vander Wal of Bakersfield, MO, eighteen grandchildren, thirty great-grandchildren, and four great-great grandchildren.

Preceded in death by her husband Fletcher Vander Wal in 1986, parents, Samuel Simpson and Cleora Pier Simpson Millard, Siblings, Robert Simpson, Roy Simpson, Russell Simpson, Frances West, Leona Hylton, Velma Graves, Betty Cobb Mills, and two infant brothers.