Tellef Edwin Carter, 90, of Carthage, passed away at the Good Samaritan Nursing Home in De Smet, on Friday, May 5, 2017. Funeral services were held on Saturday, May 13th, at 11 AM at Trinity Lutheran Church in Carthage, with burial in Pleasant View Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Pleasant View Cemetery, PO Box 126, Carthage, SD 57323.
Tellef was born November 9, 1926, the second of six children, to Tellef E. Carter and Judith (Sandven) Carter. He attended country school in Miner County and high school in Carthage. Immediately upon graduation in 1944, he left for training with the US Navy to become a pilot. With the end of the war shortly thereafter and less demand for military pilots, he was honorably discharged and returned to civilian life in Eastern South Dakota.
Tellef spent a brief period operating the local café in Howard, South Dakota, then moved to Everett, Washington, where he spent 23 years working as a pipefitter for the Weyerhaeuser Company. It was here where he and his wife, Beth, raised their five children. When Weyerhaeuser closed in 1975, he returned with his family to South Dakota where he owned a plumbing and backhoe business in Bryant and also owned/operated the buses for the Carthage School District.
Tellef was an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed hunting pheasants and deer in South Dakota, moose in Canada, and fishing for king salmon in the waters of Alaska and Washington. Tellef visited Norway where, while in his early 70s, he took a foot tour to explore the land of his family heritage. Always proud to be a veteran, Tellef considered his trip to Washington, DC as a member of the Honor Flight to be "the trip of a lifetime."
Tellef is survived by his five children, Terry Carter, Port Orchard, Washington, Mark Carter (Evelyn), Tacoma, Washington, Julie Carter, Black Hawk, SD, Kathy Haarstad (Tony), Iroquois, South Dakota and Michael Carter (Janet), Rapid City, South Dakota; sister, Mavis Dotzauer, Lake Stevens, Washington; brothers Kenneth Carter (Clare), Sedro Woolley, Washington and Donald Carter (Marilyn), Lake Stevens, Washington; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
He joins in Heaven his parents; sister, Darlene; brother, Jerome; and grandsons, Jared and Ryan.