Christene Amelia VanderBoom

Christene VanderBoom, 93, died September 5, 2020, Colorado Springs, Colorado. She lived well and was well loved.

Born June 16, 1927, on a farm ten miles west of Herreid, South Dakota, Christy was the first of two daughters for Nellie Zoss and Gottlieb Volzke, and the first grandchild of Adolf Zoss and Amelia Alt who farmed east of Letcher, South Dakota.

Christy attended Green Valley country school, Herreid High School and Mitchell South Dakota Methodist Hospital School of Nursing. Christy was romanced by returning WWII veteran Roger VanderBoom, a student at Dakota Wesleyan in Mitchell, and they soon married June 5, 1948.

Christy and Roger started their family in Newell, South Dakota, where Christy kept house, supervised her children, saw patients in her kitchen or made house calls. Later, moving with her hospital administrator husband, Christy worked as a nurse in Newcastle, Rawlins and Sundance, Wyoming; Creve Coeur, Missouri; Clinton and Terre Haute, Indiana; Hamburg, Iowa; Custer, South Dakota; Reedsport and Gardner, Oregon.

Christy was proud of her career as a registered nurse and grateful for training provided by the Cadet Nurse Corps. She retired from nursing after 14 years as the International Paper industrial nurse in Gardner.

Life in retirement was rich with reading, knitting, crocheting, computers and tea parties. Christy enjoyed a lifetime of travel adventures in the US, Germany, England, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Holland, Russia and Canada.

Christy and Roger raised five children, all of whom survive her, sons, Keith, Kenneth, Greg (Mary Sullivan); daughters, Marilyn Fetherson and Kathleen VanderBoom (Russ Estey). She is also survived by two grandchildren, Rob Fetherson (Pam) and Jeff Fetherson (Melissa); six great granddaughters; and one great great grandson. She is fondly remembered by nieces, Jane Lee and Sandy Barton (Warren); and nephew, Robert Lee (Kayleen).

Christy’s sister, Phyllis Lee, died in 2003. Roger died the following year after almost 56 years of marriage.

Christy will be buried with Roger at the National Cemetery in Sturgis, South Dakota.