Shirley Lyken

The funeral service for Shirley Lyken, of Wadena will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, June 17, 2013 at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Wadena with Pastor Nate Loer officiating. Friends may call at the church on Monday from noon until the time of service. Shirley passed away on June 9, 2013 at the age of 78, at the Care Center in Staples. Shirley Ann (Peltier) Lyken was born to Joseph and Blanche (Nattrass) Peltier on April 1, 1935 in Flaxville, Montana. Shirley was united in marriage to Harold Eugene Lyken in 1962 at Clear Lake, South Dakota. Orphaned as a young child, Shirley and her brother Stanley, two years her junior, were raised primarily by a loving foster family, the Strands, in rural North Dakota. Before relocating to Minnesota, Shirley attended a semester of nursing school. Once she moved to Minneapolis, she worked at the University of Minnesota Hospital and lived at a nearby girls’ club. It was during this time she met Harold. They would go on to raise five children, twin daughters and three sons, with Shirley as a stay-at-home mom. Once the three older children moved out, Shirley and Harold moved with their two younger sons to rural Minnesota, moving from Cyrus, to Menahga, and ultimately to Wadena where she would reside for twenty years until her Alzheimer’s disease necessitated her move to the care center in Staples. Shirley was a very artistic and intelligent person who treasured spending time with her family or engaged in her hobbies. She loved music and played several instruments, the piano her favorite. She was an avid crossword puzzle and scrabble player. She knitted, crocheted, and embroidered beautiful gifts for many over the years. In her later years, she researched her genealogy on the internet and reached out to long lost relatives far away. Shirley was a kind, gentle, and selfless person who will be greatly missed by all whose lives she touched. Shirley was preceded in death by her husband Harold, brother-in-law Edwin, both parents, brother Stanley, and sister-in-law Genevieve. She is survived by her children, daughters Kathleen (Bill) Allen of Lino Lakes, and Karen (Michael) Derrig of Arden, North Carolina; and sons Randall Lyken of Wadena, Kenneth Lyken of Staples, and Paul Lyken of Osseo; and grandchildren Travis, Reed, and Shayna Allen and Joseph and Jaime Derrig. Honorary pallbearers will be Kenneth Lyken, Shayna Allen, and Jaime Derrig. Active pallbearers will be Randall Lyken, Paul Lyken, Bill Allen, Travis Allen, Reed Allen, and Joseph Derrig. Interment will immediately follow at the Wadena Cemetery.

Shirley Lyken

April 1, 1935 - June 9, 2013