The funeral service for Delores Joy Himle will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at West St. Olaf Lutheran Church, 70640  260th Ave., in Hayfield. The Rev. Cheryl Indehar will officiate. Interment will be in West St. Olaf Lutheran Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Czaplewski Family Funeral Home, 501 Second St. NW, in Hayfield.

Delores Joy (Hewlett) Himle was born Dec. 6, 1932, in the depth of the Great Depression of 1929, joining two older siblings: Dale Murray and Keith Murray Hewlett. She was born at home, as was common at the time on the farms around Rolfe, Iowa, in Pocahontas County to Theodore Earnest and Leila Chrystel (Murray) Hewlett. She passed away at home at the age of 82 on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015.

Delores loved her earth, knowing as her father had said, everything comes from the earth and it sustained her life well. She really loved her rural life and all its beauty, having lived near Hayfield, longer than Iowa. She gained her education from St. Olaf College and used that for teaching 39 years of middle/junior high schools in Caledonia and Albert Lea, retiring in 1994. Lyle and she had 52 joyful years together while they lived in Austin, moving rural in 2003, to their farm. Lyle preceded her in death in 2009.

Delores was on the Austin Public School Board, Austin City Council, Riverland Tech Board of Austin, Owatonna, and Faribault and the Austin Library Board. The obituary is short as she never cared for lots of accolades — the world will know her most from the celebration of the God-given voice she was so blessed.

In addition to her brothers Dale (Shirley) Hewlett of Palm Desert, California, and Keith (Arlene) Hewlett of Rochester,  several nieces and nephews survive, as does her special friend, Arthur Schammel, and his family.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to West St. Olaf Cemetery Fund or Austin Our Savior’s Lutheran Church Building Fund.