Grace M. Wangberg, age 98, of Sinai, SD, passed away Thursday, February 19, 2026, at the Avera Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls.
Funeral services for Grace Wangberg will be 11 a.m. Saturday, March 7, at Sinai Lutheran Church with Pastor Mindy Spangler officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior to the services. Burial will be in the West Sinai Cemetery.
On June 5, 1927, Grace Maxine Wangberg was the first of four children born to Paul and Ida (Sletvold) Halvorson in Canton, SD. In 1944, she graduated from Sinai High School after which she attended Augustana for a year before transferring to South Dakota State College where she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Home Economics. Grace went on to teach in Milbank, SD, and later Fort Morgan, CO. On June 23, 1953, Grace and John Wangberg were married in Sinai, SD. While John was working towards his college degree, Grace taught at SDSU in Brookings, SD. The couple would have two sons, Michael and Timothy, before moving to Brazil for three years in December of 1963. While in Brazil, they adopted their daughter, Silvana, before returning to South Dakota in 1967, when John took a teaching position in Willow Lake then Letcher. In 1975, they traveled through Minnesota and Nebraska before moving to Woonsocket, SD, in the 1980s where Grace could be close to her ailing mother and would begin her education towards becoming a social worker. After her mother passed, Grace and John moved back to Sinai and later Brookings where they lived until his passing in 2021.
Grace was a proud member of the Sinai Lutheran Ladies’ Aide as well as the Sinai Legion Auxiliary. She also loved puzzle working in her free time.
Grace is survived by her three children: Michael (Deborah) Wangberg of Papillion, NE, Timothy (Diana) Wangberg of Wichita, KS, and Silvana S. Wangberg of Manhattan, KS; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; two brothers, Robert (Freda) Halvorson and James Halvorson; and sister-in-law, Julie Halvorson.
She was preceded in death by her husband, John; parents, Paul and Ida (Sletvold) Halvorson; brother, Dick Halverson; and sister, Glory Halvorson, who died as a young child.
Arrangements entrusted to Crawford Osthus Funeral Chapel in Arlington.
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