Norma Jean (Welch) Hill was born December 21, 1927 in Mitchell, South Dakota and died at the age of 97 on July 27, 2025 at her apartment at Aspen Grove Assisted Living in Sturgis, South Dakota.
She was the daughter of Glenn Howard Welch and Evalyn Onalee Richardson Welch. Norma grew up on Lake Mitchell, always with a dog and sometimes a pet rooster. She graduated from Mitchell High School in May 1945 and excelled in academics and vocal music.
Monday after graduation she began her studies in the Cadet Nursing program at the Methodist Hospital School of Nursing and Dakota Wesleyan University. She graduated the morning of June 1, 1948 and married George Albert Hill that afternoon in her Mitchell United Methodist Church.
She worked as a registered nurse in hospitals in Mitchell, Rapid City, Lemmon and Columbia, South Carolina along with providing private care to numerous patients.
She loved nursing but loved her children even more. With the arrival of daughter Myrna Jean, she eventually left the nursing profession to become a full-time wife and stay at home mother, also welcoming daughters Audrey Lynn and Lana Jo. With Lana’s arrival she began providing day care in her home for the children of women staff members who taught with George at Sturgis High School. When Lana started school Norma took a position as clerk with Jarvis Davenport’s Sturgis Water Company and continued with that position when the business was sold to the city of Sturgis. She loved getting to know every resident in town as people came to her to have water turned on and to pay monthly bills. She retired in 1994.
Norma was always active and a member in the Methodist or Presbyterian church in each community in which she lived and sang alto or tenor in the church choir from the time she started high school. She had been a faithful member of the Sturgis United Methodist Church since 1969, where in addition to choir, she was a member of the United Methodist Women, then United Women in Faith. She possessed a great sense of humor and loved entertaining in the annual church mother-daughter banquet. She was a 50 plus year member of the Order of Eastern Star and held positions of adult leadership in Job’s Daughters Sturgis Bethel #12 and assisted at the state level. She was a member of the Sturgis General Federation of Women’s Clubs. She delivered meals on Wheels in Sturgis for many years after her retirement and coordinated a week of delivery each month by people from her church.
Norma and George provided a welcoming home for family, friends and neighbors, their children’s friends, George and Myrna’s students, along with people they had just met. Tasty, hearty and nutritious meals were available for all those guests, and Norma always had delicious baked goods ready to serve.
Norma was preceded in death by her parents; her in laws, Albert and Bertha Davis Hill; her husband, George in April 2012; her sons in law, Sterling Kloster, Jeffery Robbins and Allen Miller; her sisters and brothers in law and spouses, and a number of cousins and nephews.
She is survived by her daughters, Myrna Hill of Sturgis, Audrey Kloster and husband Rod Anderson of Sioux Falls, and Lana Anderson and husband Dale of Pierre; grandsons, Cole Robbins and wife Allison Struck of Sioux Falls, Davis Anderson and wife Anna of Salem and Jared Anderson of Pierre; granddaughters, Lise Tønnessen McKay and husband Jonathan of Kristiansand, Norway and Callie Miller Lee and husband Austin of Spearfish along with special cousins, nieces and nephews. Norma was also blessed with four great grandsons, Lincoln and Rowan Robbins, Ezra Lee and David Alan McKay and great granddaughter Emma Rose Lee.
The family extends heartfelt thanks to the residents and staff at Aspen Grove who provided a wonderful, loving home and family for her.
In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established to the Sturgis United Methodist Church or a charity of choice.
Visitation will be at 10:30 am at the Sturgis United Methodist Church July 30, 2025 with the service at 11:30 with Pastor John Britt and Pastor Davis Anderson officiating. Burial will be at Black Hills National Cemetery at 12:30. A funeral luncheon at the church will then be served by the Sturgis Methodist United Women in Faith.
