IN THANKSGIVING FOR THE LIFE OF DELLA VIVIEN

October 29, 1925 – March 19, 2025

Della was the first of five children born to the Redfield, South Dakota, farm family of Herman and Dora Koester.  If she shared memories of growing up, she would tell us of sitting in the kitchen around a table with a kerosene lamp near a wood-burning cook stove and enjoying things from her mother's large garden.  We would learn that a small country church, St. John's Lutheran, in rural Tulare, South Dakota, would be where she was baptized, confirmed, and began the joy she had in the Luther League, which was the church youth group.  She later would have Luther League leadership in the Dakotas and Iowa state youth groups.

During her childhood, she experienced the Dust Bowl, a grasshopper plague that destroyed all their farm crops, and the Great Depression.  The first eight years of her education, she walked, rode her bike, or rode in a horse-drawn bobsled to the one-room schoolhouse about two miles away.  In order to go to high school, she lived in Redfield with her grandparents and walked from their home to the high school.  Following graduation in 1943, she attended Aberdeen Business College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and while there began to work as a secretary and youth worker at Zion Lutheran Church in Aberdeen, little knowing that this would be the start of a career of service to her church.

In the spring of 1948, Della was called to be the Parish Worker at Zion Lutheran in Davenport, Iowa. During the seven years she served in Davenport, she gave leadership to the youth, parish visitation, and part-time secretarial work.  Upon leaving Davenport, she served at St. Paul Lutheran in Berea, Ohio, where she continued in the same areas as the previous congregation.  In January 1971, life would change dramatically for Della when she accepted a Call to Bethel Lutheran, a much larger congregation, in Madison, Wisconsin, where she became their Director of Parish Life with responsibilities to visit new members, organize classes, and work with other small groups within the congregation.  She founded and gave leadership to the pride of her life, the XYZ Center, a ministry to provide "Xtra Years of Zest" for the senior members of the congregation and the community.  Their weekly gatherings included devotions, sharing lunch, music, crafts, day trips, and a special longer trip each year.  The group grew to several hundred participants.

Twenty years later, in December of 1991, Della retired and the next weekend married Jean Vivien and moved with him to his home in Punta Gorda, Florida.  Della and Jean became members of Holy Trinity Lutheran, where Della became a Eucharistic minister serving members who were elderly or shut-ins. Jean and Della enjoyed traveling in their motor home until Jean was slowed by health issues and passed away in May of 2004.

A few years later and a few Florida hurricanes later, during a visit with her sister's family in Thousand Oaks, California, she learned of University Village, a new senior residential development.  In August of 2007, she became the earliest resident of Mountain View and it would very quickly feel like it was home.  Using some of her past skills, she frequently would dine with new residents to welcome them and she started a Hospitality Committee, participated in groups as they planned activities, shared art work (Art Guild), assisted the bereaved (Bereavement Committee), and planned seasonal worship experiences (Advent dinners and Good Friday services).

Della soon found a new church home at Holy Trinity Lutheran, where she joined in worship and Bible studies, served again as a Eucharistic minister, and through the Ambassadors Group, assisted the congregation in maintaining contact with members who lived at University Village. She did, however, always find time to follow the Dodgers and watch a game.

Della is survived by her sister, Phyllis Wilker, of Thousand Oaks, and eight nephews and nieces living in South Dakota, Michigan, Texas, and California.  Her other siblings, Walter, Elnora, and William, have predeceased her.  Burial is in the Koester family plot near the Koester homesteaded farm in South Dakota.

Hyke Funeral Home of Redfield has been entrusted with Della's arrangements (www.hykefuneralhome.com).