Kempema, Ernest 1900-1991

KEMPEMA, VEDDERS, HARMSEN

Posted By: Paul Van Dyke-Volunteer
Date: 3/2/2015 at 19:50:36

Source: Rock Valley Bee (5-1-1991)

Birth: December 26, 1900
Death: April 27, 1991

Ernest Kempema, 90, of Rock Valley, died Saturday, April 27, 1991, at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. today, Wednesday at the First Christian Reformed Church in Rock Valley, with the Reverend C. Eric Fennema officiating. Burial was in Valley View Cemetery. Visitation was held Tuesday at the Porter Funeral Home in Rock Valley.

Mr. Kempema was born December 26, 1900, in Hornick, the son of Raymond and Hermina (Vedders) Kempema. He married Jennie Harmsen January 19, 1928, in Lebanon, Iowa. The couple lived, at Boyden, Ireton and Hawarden, in Iowa; Luverne, Minnesota; and Sioux Center, Iowa, before farming near Rock Valley in 1958. They moved into Rock Valley in 1954, where he was a salesman for the Furst-McNess Products Company until his retirement in 1980. They moved to Valley Manor of Rock Valley in 1987.

Survivors include his wife; two sons, Richard of Sioux Falls and John E. of Rock Valley; four daughters, Mrs. Ben (Hermina) Boon of Rock Rapids, Mrs. Floyd (Eleanor) Nyenhuis of Sioux Falls, Mrs. LcRoy (Jane) Koedam of Rock Valley, and Mrs. Larry (Ruth) Klingenberg of Worthington, Minnesota; three brothers, Charles, John and Herman, all of Rock Valley; three sisters, Mrs. Martin (Jennie) Kooistra of Inwood, Mrs. Peter (Freida) Groeneweg of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Mrs. John D. (Jeanette) Van Maanen of Rock Valley; 22 grandchildren; and 26 great-grandchildren.

He also was preceded in death by two brothers, Henry and Clarence; a sister, Fannie Kooistra; and an infant grandson, Terry Koedam.