Perry Luther Ellefson, the eighth child of Lewis and Alice Ellefson, was born on the homestead dairy farm of his Grandfather Elef, 3 miles west of Garretson, South Dakota on September 14, 1928. Perry passed from this life on April 28, 2020, age 91, due to complications from COVID-19.
Upon graduation from Garretson High School, he joined the U.S. Navy, assigned duty in the Pacific aboard an escort destroyer. After his honorable discharge in 1948, he went to work at John Morrell and Co. in Sioux Falls and then won a post as a postal clerk in Garretson, SD working for the U.S. Postal Service as a clerk, a rural carrier, and then as Postmaster until retiring on Nov. 1, 1986 (40 years).
Perry held many interesting jobs around Garretson including roller-skating referee, ambulance driver, movie projector operator at the ECHO theatre, Gun club shooter, volunteer firefighter, and motor home delivery driver. He loved to hunt, fish, and teach his kids about farming with his brother Leonard, how to drive a car & tractor and safely shoot a gun. He was also a member of Zion Lutheran Church, the American Legion, and a 7th degree Mason in Garretson.
After moving to Texas permanently in 1994, Perry & wife Helen brought the Norwegian tradition of the Lutefisk Dinner as a fundraiser to their local Lutheran church in Mission, TX. He served as President of his HOA in the Enchanted Valley neighborhood, active in the Sons of Norway, Edinburgh Chapter and golfed weekly with his men’s group, the Sodbusters.
Perry is predeceased by his wife (66 years), Helen (nee Hoven) and a son, Jerome. He was also predeceased by his parents, Lewis & Alice Ellefson; his 8 siblings: Elmer, Theodore, Lloyd, Leonard, Rodney, Shirley Burkey, Margaret Tarpley, Irene Koontz.
He is survived by his 5 children: Jeff (Nancy) Frisco, TX; Jeanne Dassel (Paul), Castle Rock, CO; David (Susan); Fredericksburg, VA; Jon, Cheyenne WY; Dean (Karen), Milwaukee, WI. plus 9 grandchildren/9 great-grandchildren, 4 sisters-in-law and many, many nieces and nephews throughout the local region.
Due to the current pandemic and the risks to others, current plans for a joint (Perry & Helen) celebration of life gathering in Garretson are postponed (to be announced at a later date).
If you wish to memorialize his life, please donate to the American L Legion in Garretson, SD.
