Maxine Raabe, age 88, of Huron, passed away Saturday, March 30,2019, at SunQuest Healthcare Center. Her funeral service was held at 11 AM, Thursday, April 4th at the American Lutheran Church at De Smet. Burial was in the LeSueur Cemetery at Bancroft.
Maxine Martens was born April 6, 1930, to Henry and Anna (Naeve) Martens on the family farm near Bancroft, South Dakota. She attended a small country school until the sixth grade. As the youngest of eight children, she followed her older brother as she continued her education and graduated from Bancroft High School in 1948.
On September 18, 1949, she married Gordon Raabe. Maxine and Gordon continued with the family way of farming on the Raabe farm 10 miles north and 1.6 miles east of Iroquois. The young couple's family grew with the arrival of Linda, Kenneth and the twins, Dean and Duane.
Maxine stayed very busy both in the house and doing chores. She enjoyed chores and never wanted to do anything else. She often reminisced about a family vacation to the Black Hills. Maxine was the first woman to serve on the council of St. John's Lutheran Church at Bancroft. She was a member of the church women's quilting group.
Maxine and Gordon moved to StoneyBrook Suites in June of 2007, after having lived on the same family farm for 58 years. After 61 years of marriage, Maxine lost the love of her life with the passing of Gordon on October 12, 2010.
Grateful for having shared her life are her four children, Linda Meier of Egan, Kenneth (Robin) Raabe of Kimberly, Idaho, Dean (Rachelle) Raabe of Watertown and Duane (Julie) Raabe of Britton; two sisters-in-law, Dorothy (Gordon) Carlson of Jackson, Michigan and Rose Grothe of De Smet; six grandchildren, James Meier, Jennifer Shriver, Michael Raabe, Laura Babbs, Jason Raabe and Jared Raabe; and six great-grandchildren, Korbin Meier, Isaac Babbs, Hailey Babbs, James Raabe, Henry Raabe and Willa Meier.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; four brothers and three sisters.