Our mom, Shirley Jean Bertrand Erlandson, died on April 22, 2025, in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Mom was born in Sioux City, Iowa on January 7, 1930, the ninth child of Lucille and Louis Bertrand. She grew up on two different Iowa farms near Sloan; frequently getting in trouble for climbing the windmill and wandering into the barnyard. Her Papa would then escort her back inside the farmhouse “where girls belong!”

Mom attended Catholic schools, graduating from St. Joseph Catholic High School with her class of four other students. She studied piano at Sheldon Jr. College in Sheldon, Iowa for one semester. Her plans changed after meeting our handsome dad, Robert Erlandson, and after a three-month whirlwind romance they headed to Missouri and eloped. The early years of their marriage welcomed four children and several moves in order to follow dad’s electrical construction jobs in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Miller, South Dakota.

In Miller, Mom was employed as a bookkeeper for JC Penny Co. for several years. She bravely studied to be a pilot, took flight lessons, and even soloed! After that accomplishment she decided that she really didn’t want to fly anyway, she only wanted the skills in the event she would have to take over while flying with our dad!

Mom was gifted with a beautiful musical ability which she generously shared on the piano or organ by filling the house with music; playing for weddings; subbing at churches; and entertaining on Saturday nights at the Highlight Bar. The keyboard was her place of solace.

An avid reader, mom was never without a stack of library books. She read for enjoyment and for her never-ending search for knowledge on many subjects, including religion and spirituality. Growing up Catholic, becoming a Presbyterian and then a Bahai, mom finally found her spiritual home with Eckankar.

In 1970 mom and dad moved to Dodge Center, Minnesota where they resided for seven years. Their final move and home was their wonderful land in the Black Hills of South Dakota where they found joy in the pine trees, deer, turkeys, bluebirds, wild currants for making beautiful jelly, and associating with wonderful neighbors.

We will forever be awed by mom’s resilience as she persevered through many hardships in her lifetime.

Mom was preceded in death by her parents, five sisters and five brothers, her husband Robert (“Ole”—she never called him Robert!), and one grandson, Andrew Pflaum.

Surviving mom are four children: Edward, Laura, Barbara (Michael) and Donald (Toni); seven grandchildren: Michael, Ian (Jaime), Nathan (Jillian), Sonya (Patrick), Emily, Katie, and Meghan (Sam), and three great-grandchildren: Jocelyn, Genavieve, and Beauden.

Mom will be laid to rest near our dad at Black Hills National Cemetery with immediate family present.

BLESSED BE