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Submitted: 4/12/09 • Approved: 4/12/09 • Last Updated: 8/14/15 • R6152-G0-S3
Cornelius "Neil" Hainje was born on December 1, 1918 on a farm near Stickney, South Dakota, the son of William and Hendrika (DeBoer) Hainje. The fourth of eight children, he grew up and attended school in the Stickney area. As a young man, Neil moved to Valley Springs, SD and worked on farms in the area. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from February 1942 until February 1946. After extensive training in the U.S. he was assigned to the South Pacific where he participated in many island invasions. He was wounded and was awarded the Purple Heart. Following his discharge, Neil returned to Valley Springs where he met Geraldine "Jerry" Leach. They were married on November 21, 1948 in Cedar Rapids, IA. The couple soon moved to Logan Township and to their farm near Dell Rapids, SD in 1950. That farm was home to the Hainje family until Neil and Jerry moved to Orchard Hills in Dell Rapids in 2002.
Neil died on Tuesday, January 6, 2004 at Orchard Hills in Dell Rapids at the age of 85. He was preceded in death by his son, Roger; his parents, two brothers and two sisters.
Neil and his family were proud of his membership and leadership in the Lutheran Church of Dell Rapids, the Dell Rapids American Legion Post #65, South Dakota, Assn. of Town and Townships, 4-H, South Dakota Farm Bureau, Dell Rapids CO-OP Grain, Logan Township, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Those left to cherish Neil's memory are his wife, Jerry of Dell Rapids; his daughter, Mary Beth Medema and her husband, Bruce of Sioux Falls; his sons, Steen Hainje and his wife, Marqueta of Maple Grove, MN, Douglas Hainje and his wife, Christie of Dell Rapids and Richard Hainje and his wife, Becky of Overland Park, KS; his 9 grandchildren, Leslie, Joseph, David, Thomas, Daniel, Michael, Matthew, Jonathan, and Michelle; his great grandson, Logan; his brother, John Hainje and wife Helen of Kansas City, MO and his sisters, Margaret Streelman, of Bellfower Ca. and Reckie South Field of Ontario, CA., and a host of other relatives and friends.
Contributed on 4/12/09 by dellsfig68
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Record #: 6152