Joanne Shellum, age 81, of rural Trent, SD, passed away on Thursday, May 1, 2025 at Bethany Home in Brandon, SD.
Funeral service will be 10:30 AM Thursday, May 8, 2025 at Highland Lutheran Church rural Sherman, SD with Pastor Alan Blankenfeld officiating. Burial will follow at the Highland Cemetery.
Visitation will be Wednesday, May 7th from 5 -7 PM with a 7PM prayer service and time of remembrance, at the Minnehaha Funeral Home in Garretson, SD.
Joanne Shellum was born October 4, 1943 to Lawrence and Marie (Mausbach) Kroeger in Canton, SD. She graduated from Canton High School in 1961 and continued her schooling at Southern State Teacher’s College in Springfield until 1963. She worked in an office in Sioux Falls until her marriage to Ronald Shellum on June 10, 1967. The couple bought a farm in 1969 and started their family. They had three sons: Allen, Mark and Paul.
She loved to garden and canned much of her harvests. She enjoyed hanging out with Ron’s mom Alice, collecting glass and furniture. After losing her husband in 1989, she continued to farm and raise her boys. In 1992 her father passed and she started taking care of her mother and continued to farm her mom and dad’s place with her boys. When her mother passed, she became more involved with Prairie Village in Madison and was on the board as secretary for many years. She also helped set up the flea market for Jamboree and took great pride in making contacts with the vendors. In 2000 her sons bought a tractor-pull sled and she became very involved with the tractor pulls.
She was a collector of many things and spent her later years going to auctions and buying J.D. tractors, J.D. literature and toy tractors, teacups, Little Golden Books, Depression Glass, fine china, Avon collectibles, and anything Winnie The Pooh. She enjoyed watching the Vikings and college basketball. She loved watching Tom Selleck on Blue Bloods and the Chicago Fire, PD, Med series, Criminal Minds, Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, The Young and Restless, and The Price Is Right.
Left to cherish her memory are her sons, Allen (Pam) Shellum, Mark Shellum, and Paul (Nancy) Shellum; grandchildren, Jennifer (JR) Anderson, Kirsten Bailey, Shelby (Dusty) Lingen, Alyssa Shellum (Kale), Kenyon (Hannah) Shellum, Ceara Shellum, Cody (Meghan) Shellum, Zachary Shellum (Nevaeh), and Abbey Shellum, Samantha Shellum, Colin Shellum and Chase Shellum; great-grandchildren, Madison, Emery, Carson, Keelan, Avan, Amelia, Charlotte, Melanie, Hayden; and many others, friends and family.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Lawrence and Marie Kroeger; husband Ronald; father-in-law, Obed and her mother-in-law, Alice.
