Te Slaa, Therissa (Mrs. Gerben) 1925-2017

TESLAA, HAVERHALS, ANDELA, VIS

Posted By: Marjorie Brunsting-Volunteer (email)
Date: 5/15/2017 at 13:30:10

Mrs. Therissa Te Slaa, age 92, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, formerly of Hull, Iowa, passed away on Sunday, April 30, 2017, at the Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls.

There will be a funeral service on Wednesday, May 3, at 11:00am, at the First Reformed Church in Hull. The Rev. Irwin Van Leeuwen and the Rev. Kevin Yurk will officiate. Interment will follow the service at the Hope Cemetery in Hull. Visitation will be on Tuesday, with the family present from 5:00pm to 7:00pm, at the Oolman Funeral Home in Hull.

Therissa was born on April 15, 1925, at Lebanon, Iowa, the daughter of John and Adriana (Haverhals) Andela. She was raised in Lebanon, where she attended a country school. After her mother’s death in 1933, she helped her father and grandmother raise her three brothers. When she was a teenager, her family moved to Hull, where her father later married Jennie Vis.

On June 8, 1944, Therissa was united in marriage to Gerben Te Slaa at his parents’ home in Hull. They made their home in Hull, where she worked as a sales clerk in Gerb’s Hardware and later at the Hull Drug Store. In October of 2010, the couple moved to Sioux Falls.

She had been a member of the Lebanon Christian Reformed Church and the First Christian Reformed Church in Hull. She was currently a member of the First Reformed Church in Hull. She participated in the church circle groups and church choir, and helped lead worship services at Pleasant Acres Care Center in Hull, where she would sing Dutch Psalms.

Therissa enjoyed gardening, knitting, crocheting, sewing, cross stitching, and solving word puzzles. She crocheted many blankets and afghans, which she gave to her children and grandchildren. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, who touched many lives with her gentle spirit.

Survivors include her husband of more than 72 years, Gerben; four children and their spouses, Helen and Irwin Van Leeuwen, Gaylen and Laura Te Slaa, and Terril and Lori Te Slaa, all of Sioux Falls, and Orlin and Julie Te Slaa, of Shakopee, Minnesota; ten grandchildren and their spouses, Debra and Jeffrey Tornow, Michael and Jodi Van Leeuwen, Sheryl and Dustin Brouwer, Jeffrey and Bethany Te Slaa, Karla and Todd Van Baren, Kathy and Thomas Kemper, Kimberly and Branden Dewing, Kyle and Stacy Te Slaa, Ryan and Emily Ritchie, and Brittany and Jesse Sievers; 22 great-grandchildren; and a brother and his wife, Peter and Lois Andela, of Kirbyville, Missouri.

In addition to her parents and step-mother, she was preceded in death by two brothers and their wives, Siebert and Beulah Andela, and Carl and Georgia Andela.

Memorials may be directed to the Hull Christian School.

Source: Oolman Funeral Home online obituary.