Valla Vee Benedict, age 89, of Huron, died Sunday, December 25, 2016. Her funeral service was held at 10:00 AM Friday, December 30th at Bethesda Church. Burial was in the Bethel Church Cemetery, rural Yale. Memorials may be directed to Bethesda Church for their Missions Program or Byron Bible Camp.
Valla Vee was born August 10, 1927, in Kimball to Frank and Kathryn (Nepodal) Benedict. She grew up on the family farm near Gann Valley and attended high school in Kimball and Madison.
Her faith was always at the forefront of her life. From age six, she attended Sunday school and later Byron Bible Camp near Huron. As early as age eight, she felt a calling for African missions. It was at Byron Bible Camp, a special place for her, that a Presbyterian minister and the camp director's wife, Hazel Harmon, led her to the Lord and eventually 36 ½ years of missionary service in Nigeria, Africa. After high school, she lived with the family of Gene and Hazel Harmon and became the beloved older sister to their children.
Valla Vee graduated from Huron College and taught school in Pierre for two years following college. She attended Prairie Bible Institute in Canada and then served as a counselor at Byron Bible Camp and Sunshine Bible Academy.
On October 5, 1954, her dream of missionary service began. She was accepted for service with the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) and after visiting 11 churches to raise support, moved to Nigeria, Africa. The first leg of her journey was a train ride from Huron to the mission's headquarters in New York. There she had further training before she took the next leg of the trip by ship. It took one week to travel to Liverpool, England, and another two week voyage before landing in Nigeria, West Africa.
After arriving in Nigeria, she purchased a few supplies that included a water filter and mosquito net. She took her first airplane ride on a tiny aircraft to Cono, where she would have six months of training in language, although English is the official language there.She began teaching at Kalatungo where her first duty was to train men to teach other teachers to work in their villages. She did this for four years. She then taught in Kagoro, Billiri, Potiskum and Jos.
At one time, there was a shortage of teachers available because visas were very difficult for travelers to get, due to the war. She was asked, and accepted the position to teach elementary children in the American school. The children of city employees were in attendance as well as Christian children whose parents worked in the city. Her enthusiasm for the Lord's work was evident in everything she did. Her list of children she loved and helped was long.
Over the years, she traveled to and from the United States to visit family and update her credentials, always stopping to visit with friends in many countries along the way. The slide shows of her missionary work were infamous and always a big event at family gatherings. They lasted for hours. The African art she collected remains invaluable to her family.
After years of missionary work and teaching, Valla Vee then worked tirelessly at the Miango Rest Home (MRH), a Christian retreat and conference center located in Miango, Nigeria. She was the Hospitality Coordinator. She always took a special interest in people she worked with and corresponded with hundreds of them on an annual basis through prayer letters, fundraising letters and letters of friendship.
Valla Vee was a dedicated member of Bethesda Church, the Beadle County Republican Women and the Christian Women's Club. She loved to visit, read (especially all the letters she received every week) sew, garden, bake, can and cook.
She is survived by her sister, Velma Lee (Benedict Dailey) Erickson, Bismarck, North Dakota; nieces, Mary Michelle "Mic" (Dennis) Heupel, Eureka, South Dakota and Eileen (John) Walsh, Bismarck, North Dakota; great-nephews, Matthew Heupel, Tioga, North Dakota, Jared (Jessica) Heupel, Eureka, South Dakota and Garrett Walsh, Bismarck, North Dakota; great-great-nephew, Declan Heupel, Eureka, South Dakota; and members of her very special family, Craig (Dorothy) Harmon, Huron, South Dakota, Thomas (Esther) Harmon, Pierre, South Dakota, Rebecca (Don) Donalson, Tomball, Texas, Philip (Connie) Harmon, Whitewater, Wisconsin, Joel (Bobbie) Harmon, Milford, Connecticut, Rachel (Ken) Ediger, Hays, Kansas and Sally (David) Lott, Lusaka, Zambia.
Valla Vee was preceded in death by her parents; her brothers-in-law, Gordon Dailey and Richard Erickson; one niece, JoAnn Jordan; and special family members, Gene and Hazel Harmon.