Donna Smeins

Donna Smeins passed away at the Bethesda Nursing Home in Webster, SD on the morning of December 20, 2020. She had spent the last week assuring all who would listen that her beloved Lawrence would be coming to take her home. After saying goodbye to her older brother Jarvis earlier in the day, Lawrence made good on her promise and took her with him to begin their second life together. Private family services will be at 10:00 A.M. Tuesday, December 29, 2020 and will be livestreamed on Fiksdal Funeral Service Facebook page. There will be public walk through Visitation Tuesday beginning at 9:00 A.M. at Fiksdal Funeral Service in Webster. Burial will be at Webster Cemetery at a later date. Donna was born on January 9, 1933 in Bristol, SD to Olaf and Alfel Olson. The second youngest of 13 siblings. At a young age she was called upon to help ‘Pa’ care for her brothers and sisters. Learning skills that would later benefit her own children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and dozens of other youngsters in and around Webster. On December 29, 1950 Donna married Lawrence Smeins of Andover. Together they raised five children and spent 59 loving years together. Tucked in between the dual roles of wife and mother Donna found time for other interests. She was an accomplished seamstress, worked the counter at Coney Island Cafe, Montgomery Wards and Sears. More importantly she welcomed the children of neighbors, friends and family to spend the days with her while their parents were at work. Until very recently those children would visit Donna and let her know how much they wished they had someone like her to look after their own offspring. It would make going off to work so much easier. In their later years Donna and Lawrence built, with their own hands, a cabin on Deerfield Road in the beautiful Black Hills. From the early 90’s until this past year, summers were spent enjoying the unique pleasures of high plains living with family and friends. Many lovely days spent visiting on the deck, riding bikes along the Mickelson Trail, making and eating fattigmans and donuts - in the winter sledding in the front yard. Grandkids grew up here, among the pines, the deer, the turkeys and an assortment of other creatures. The wildlife of the hills lost a good friend in Donna. Her children’s homes are adorned in the art she created in that crisp mountain air. The same air that brought some peace to those who took the time to visit. Thankful to have been part of Donna’s life are her children – LeAnn (Jeff) Walter of Tucson; Mike (Rhonda) Smeins of Milbank; Danny (Susan) Smeins of Langford; Sherry (Wenzel Anderson) Markel of Webster; Sandra (Randy) Allen of Rapid City; twelve grandchildren and twenty six great grandchildren; sister Vera Braley of Sioux Falls; Jarvis ‘Jay’ Olson of Hill City …. and those who have welcomed Donna home – her parents, ten brothers and sisters, granddaughter Lauren, and loving husband Lawrence.