Delia (Wielenga) Pals

Delia Pals, 95, of Slayton, MN passed away on Sunday August 23, 2015 at the Golden Living Center in Slayton. Visitation will start at 11:00 am, August 27, 2015 and continue until the time of service at the First Reformed Church in Slayton. Funeral Services will be held at 1:00 pm with the Rev. Aaron Punt officiating.  Organist will be Viola Hoekman, and pallbearers are Byron Pals, Kevin Pals, Darin Pals, Taylor Pals, Sawyer Pals & Tristen Pals. A luncheon will be held immediately following the service in the fellowship hall with interment following the luncheon at the Chandler Memorial Cemetery.

Delia Pals was born on June 17, 1920 to Herbert and Johanna (Vink) Wielenga in Orange City, Iowa.  She grew up on a farm southwest of Boyden, Iowa.  She attended a one-room country school house near Boyden, Iowa and completed eighth grade.  She helped her parents on the farm picking corn, milking cows by hand, and farmed using horses.  She enjoyed helping her mother in the garden and in the house.  She earned 75 cents a day helping neighbors and others with cleaning jobs and washing windows.  She met Henry Pals on a Sunday evening after church.  They were united in marriage in 1941 and lived north of Orange City, Iowa on his parents’ farm.  Later they moved to Delias’ parents’ farm and continued to farm there until 1951 when they moved into Orange City, Iowa and Henry worked for his brother Cornelius Pals delivering freight and Delia worked at the Orange City Hospital in the laundry department.  While living in Iowa, three children were born to this union: Gretchen, Harley, and Lowell.  In 1956, Henry and Delia bought a farm southwest of Slayton, Minnesota.  Another child, Beth, was born to this union in Minnesota.  Delia continued farming duties even after Henry passed away in 1982, and stayed living there until 2000, when she moved into a home in Slayton. In 2010, she moved into assisted living for two years before becoming a resident at the Golden Living Center in Slayton.

While living in Minnesota, Delia helped with farm wife duties and was a great gardener and loved to preserve her fruits and vegetables in the winter months.  She also did the mowing, planting trees, shrubs and lots of flowers.  She liked to bake wonderful pies and cakes and breads with the best ingredients possible.  Her specialty was baked chicken on Sundays and meat, potatoes, and vegetables during the week.  There was no job she would not tackle.  She was not afraid of any challenge.  Delia was a great seamstress who made some of her children’s clothes out of feed sacks or old clothing.

Delia also worked at a care center and a sewing factory in Slayton as an inspector.  In her spare time she enjoyed going to garage sales and doing ceramics.

She is lovingly remembered by her four children, Gretchen (Teddie) Swanson of Lakeville, MN, Harley (friend Jeanne Trettel) Pals of Little Falls, Lowell Pals of Slayton, and Beth (Leroy) Kalass of Slayton; 8 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren, and 9 great-great grandchildren; sister Hermina DeZeeuw of Artesia, CA; and many nieces and nephews.

She is preceded in death by her husband Henry, parents, sister Marynetta Bergsma, brother Louis Wielinga, and daughter-in-law Kim Pals.