Lois Anderson – Arlington

Celebration of Life for Lois A. Andersen age 86 of Arlington will be 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 14, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Arlington, SD, with visitation two hours prior to services at the church.
Lois passed away Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, at United Living Community in Brookings, SD. Arrangements have been entrusted to Johnson-Henry Funeral Home of Arlington, Lake Preston and Oldham.
Lois Ann Andersen, 86, of Arlington, South Dakota died Dec. 7, 2023, in Brookings, SD following a short battle with cancer.
She was born in Arlington in 1937 to Nels and Irene (Aronson) Ottoson and grew up on a farm where she preferred to work outside with her dad over any house work. She ran farm machinery, fed livestock, and hunted.
After graduating from Arlington High School, she married Kenneth Andersen in October of 1955 and had four children Brenda, Denise, Scott, and Dawn.
The family lived in Manheim, PA, for nearly 11 years before moving back to the South Dakota prairie where they built a house and barn on heritage land. They raised Hereford cattle for years. After a divorce, Lois remained on the farm for the rest of her life.
Lois was a creative person she was an artist, builder, photographer, gardener, and repurposer. She loved watercolor painting, working with wood, taking pictures of the prairie land and sky, growing fresh vegetables, and making old things new again. In recent years, she completely refurbished an old camper trailer by herselfbuilding new cabinets, making curtains and cushions, and decorating with old barn wood and southwestern textiles. Her whole house was a gallery of her creative endeavors.
Lois worked for a photographer in PA, as office manager at a lumber yard, and for most of her career, at Dakota Rural Action in Brookings. She was a member of Trinity Lutheran Quilting Group, the Basement Painters, Red Hat Ladies, and Satyagraha Institute.
She is survived by her children Brenda Turenne, Denise (Chris) Brake, Scott Andersen (Kris Parks), and Dawn (Lyle) Gehrke, grandchildren Matthew Rhodes, Emily (Shawn) Brake Bolton, Anna (Brandon) Swansun, Aaron Brake (Zoe Olson), Amanda (Seth) Luoma, Liza (Mike) Visser, and Sterling (Ashley) Gehrke, five great-grandchildren, siblings Don Ottoson and Denise Ottoson, and many nephews and nieces.
Lois was preceded in death by her father and mother, Nels and Irene Ottoson.