Hazel Verlyn (Freeman) Hamilton

Hazel Verlyn (Freeman) Hamilton joined her heavenly family on Friday, April 13, 2018, at Firesteel Healthcare Community.

Funeral services will be 10 am, Thursday, April 19, 2018, at Bethany Lutheran Church, Howard with burial in St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery, Canova. 

VISITATION WEDNESDAY  HAS BEEN CANCELED BY THE FAMILY, DUE TO THE PENDING WEATHER. VISITATION WILL BE ONE HOUR PRIOR TO SERIVCES AT THE CHURCH ON THURSDAY.  

Hazel was born on a farmstead Northwest of Canova, on December 28, 1925, to William and Wendulal Freeman.  She joined two sisters, Lois and Helen and a brother, Chris. Life on the farm was hard work, but horses were Hazel’s passion, especially her black Shetland pony named Babe.  The “Dirty Thirties” were especially hard with no crops and having to feed young Russian thistles to the animals for feed.  She went to school at the Freeman (4707) School, with her family boarding many of the teachers.  She graduated from Burbank Consolidated School in 1948, where she played basketball.

WWII had begun on December 7, 1941, and in 1943 she found work at John Morrill, a café, a grocery store, and at the Air Force Base in Sioux Falls where she met her husband, Clarence E. Hamilton and they were married March 2, 1944.  A son, William E. Hamilton, was born to this marriage.  Hazel was always the caretaker, including her parents and Gosmire uncles, always giving of herself.  She was a quilter and gifted all her children and grandchildren with her beautiful work.  Her church quilting friends provided her with many fun times and she continued to donate quilts to them after her move to Mitchell.

God and her church were an important part of her life.  She was a Sunday School teacher and held offices in women’s groups at St. Paul Lutheran Church and Bethany Lutheran Church.  In 1957, she become employed by Bell Telephone Company in Howard, then transferred to Sioux Falls and retired in 1983.  She returned to the homestead in 1985 where she lived until she had a farm auction and moved to Mitchell in 2011.

Family was everything to Hazel.  She never missed a wedding, birthday, graduation, or funeral.  She and her cousins, Pete and Doc Gosmire, and niece Bev (Henry) Christianson were always on some adventure.  Birthday celebrations were her favorite, with the birthday song finishing with a raucous rendition of “For She’s/He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”.  God welcomed her to her heavenly birth with a rousing lightening, thunder, rain, hail, and snow storm on Friday the 13th, where she joined her family and friends.

Surviving Hazel are her son, William (Bill) Hamilton and Cheri, grandsons, Chad Hamilton (Shane Carrier), Jim Hamilton (Wendy Larsen) of Mitchell, Derrek (Keisha) Hamilton of Sioux Falls, and  Jim Henle (Sarah)j of Downingtown, PA; granddaughters, Lisa Hamilton of Long Beach, CA and Laurriee Bentson (Jimmy Isburg) of Mitchell; six great grandchildren; and loving nieces, nephews, and cousins.

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