Funeral services for Janice Ritter, 86, of Akaska will be at 10:30 AM, Tuesday, March 12, 2024, at the Akaska Community Center. Burial will be at the Akaska Cemetery under the direction of Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge. Visitation will be at 5 PM with a prayer service at 7 PM Monday at Kesling Funeral Home. Janice passed away Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at her home.

Janice was born October 17, 1937, at the Bowdle Hospital in Bowdle, South Dakota. She graduated from Bowdle High School. After high school, she moved to Mobridge, South Dakota to work for the telephone company as a phone operator. It was there that she met the love of her life, Leo Ritter from Akaska, South Dakota.

Janice and Leo married on October 25, 1959, at the Bowdle Methodist Church. They moved to Pierre, South Dakota where Leo worked on the building of the Oahe Dam. They returned to the Akaska area the following year and rented a farm south of Akaska. They welcomed their first daughter Connie Lenora on June 5, 1960, at the Hoven Hospital. In 1965, they purchased their family farm from Max and Olga Weiss, one month after moving to the farm, they welcomed their second daughter, Rosalyn (Roz) Richelle on February 29, 1965, at the Mobridge Regional Hospital.

Leo and Janice farmed and ranched raising Herefords, chickens, hogs, and turkeys until Leo's death in July of 1983. Janice then leased the farm to their nephew Royce Ritter and his family. Janice then decided it was time to return to the workforce. She worked various jobs including clerking at Klug's Hardware in Selby, South Dakota Liebelt Accounting in Mobridge, the elevator in Akaska and Glenham, The Connection in Mobridge as a CSR and finally as a grocery clerk at Langor's Family Foods in Gettysburg, South Dakota. She retired from Lanor's at the age of 70.

She was a member of the Swan Creek Cowbells in the 70's and 80's. She was a member of the Akaska Ladies Club and was an active member of the Pioneer Telephone Operators out of Mobridge. She also helped with various community projects.

Janice enjoyed gardening (flower), mowing, and maintaining her yard, reading, embroidery and spending time with family and friends. She also enjoyed traveling, her favorite vacation was a trip she and Roz took to Ireland in 2004. She said if she could have, she would have traveled back there to spend more time.

From a random conversation overheard in a café in Missouri, some 20 years ago, the family grew. Her niece Sandy's husband overheard gentlemen talking about how they were looking for a place to hunt pheasants. Janice's information was given to the gentlemen and starting that fall and every fall since, they have come to hunt and stay with family. They are called the Missouri guys, but they are so much more, they became family.

Janice is survived by her daughter Connie from Akaska and Rosalyn (Roz) from Mobridge. Fifteen nieces and nephews and a whole bunch of great and great, great nieces and nephews whom she considered to all he her children.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Wm Pete Murray and Lenora Mae (Ring) Murrray, her husband, Leo T. Ritter, siblings and spouses, Dale and Esther Murray, Donald and Elaine Murray, Joyce and Paul Cook, Kenneth Murray, Shirley, and Robert Lee. In-laws Fred and Christina Ritter, brothers-in-laws and sister-in-laws Bertha and Henry Smith, Esther Ritter, Ervin and Leona Ritter, nephew Pete Cook, niece Marcie Ritter and great nephew, Jonathan Pemp.

She was the last of her generation for the Ritter and Murray families and will be missed by all who knew and loved her.