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Submitted: 9/12/21 • Approved: 9/13/21 • Last Updated: 9/16/21 • R272669-G272669-S3
Shireen Beverly Levsen
July 3, 1935 - September 26, 2020
Shireen Beverly (Peterson) Levsen passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 26, 2020 at Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls. A memorial service will begin at 1:00 on Friday, October 2, at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls. The family requests that those attending to please wear masks. Ample space will be provided for social distancing. A Zoom link is listed below for those who want to attend Shireen's funeral virtually. The service will be live-streamed on Friday, October 2, 2020, at 1:00 p.m.
Shireen was born on July 3, 1935, to Sulo and Ella (Schwartz) Peterson in Bristol, SD. Shireen began playing piano very young and at the age of 15 began playing the organ for services at Bethesda Lutheran in Bristol. Shireen continued her music studies at Northern State University in Aberdeen where she met Don on a college band bus. They became engaged and were married on March 29, 1957. They had sixty-three years of married life.
After Don was finished with basic training in the army they lived in Dormont, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh. A local Dormont church needed a choir director and organist and found them in Don and Shireen. While Don did his day job in the army, Shireen worked at a car dealership where she was the pride of the office having balanced the books that hadn’t been balanced in several months. Their first child, Deanna, was born in Pittsburgh. When Don was about to end his military duty the Dormont church tried to find a position in the school system to entice the couple to stay. It was a nice gesture, but the couple decided to come home to South Dakota.
From 1959 to 1968 Shireen was a beloved piano teacher for hundreds of students in Groton and Aberdeen, SD – places where Don had been called to serve as music director. In March of ’61, son Mark was born and in May of ’67, Sara was born.
In August of 1968, the couple moved to Sioux Falls where Shireen became an organist at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church as Don became the director of music. Shireen continued her piano teaching and organ playing in Sioux Falls until arthritis in her hands caused her to retire in 1995.
Shireen had a love of doing the most difficult crossword puzzles and watching figure skating and The Young and the Restless on TV. But her true love, beyond that for Don and her family, was for the art (think glassware), music (think Sibelius) and her Finnish heritage (think Finlandia).
After Don’s retirement from Our Savior’s in 1999, the couple spent seven summers as campground hosts in Grand Teton National Park where Sara was employed. In July of 2006 the couple moved to Trail Ridge Retirement Home in Sioux Falls. They were content living at Trail Ridge with their excellent staff and resident friendships, but Shireen’s health became more problematic with several hospitalizations.
Shireen is survived by her husband, Don, her daughters, Deanna (Joel) Wehrspann of Sioux Falls, Sara (Wayne) Petsch of Moose, WY; her son, Mark (Joyce) Levsen of Webster, SD and her five grandchildren, Catherine, Grace, Yulia, John and Colton.
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Section Oak Plot # 143
Contributed on 9/12/21 by 9katz
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Record #: 272669