Funeral services for Mrs. Anna Fish, age 100, of Milbank, and formerly of rural Twin Brooks, SD, will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 5, 2008, at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in South Shore, SD. The Reverend Jason Schmidt will officiate. Hilda Grewing will be the organist. Anna, widow of James Fish, died on Sunday, June 1, 2008, at St. William's Care Center in Milbank. Family members are asked to meet in the church fellowship hall by 10:00 a.m. Thursday to attend services. Visitation will be at the Emanuel-Patterson Funeral Home in Milbank on Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. and in the church Thursday one hour before services. Burial will be in the Milbank City Cemetery. Pallbearers will be her grandsons: Guy, Leon, Bruce, Wayne, Richard, and Alan Fish; Lonnie and Douglas Karges.
Anna was born on November 4, 1907, Lura Township, Grant County, South Dakota, the daughter of Albert and Augusta (Thrum) Kaaz. She attended Lura #5 country school. Anna was baptized and confirmed at St. John's Lutheran Church of Mazeppa Township.
Before her marriage she worked in a hospital in Watertown. On July 8, 1931 she was united in marriage to James V. Fish at St. John's Lutheran Church of Mazeppa Township. The couple lived southwest of South Shore for four years before moving to a farm west of Twin Brooks. In 1938 they purchased the Fish home place, where they lived since 1940. Anna was a loving mother and enjoyed being a farm wife, raising many chickens and geese, gardening, canning, cooking, and sewing. She was a member of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in South Shore, South Dakota. Her husband died on October 31, 1992.
Anna entered Beverly Healthcare (now Golden Living Center) in Milbank on July 7, 1993, moving to St. William's Care Center on September 29, 1993.
Survivors include her daughter, Mrs. Vernita Watkins, Milbank; her three sons, Ethan Fish and wife Ruth, Milbank; Duane Fish and wife Donna, rural Twin Brooks, SD, and Arlo Fish, Stockholm, SD, and his special friend, Dee Dee Rufer, of Strandburg, SD; twenty-three grandchildren; forty-seven great grandchildren; five great, great grandchildren; her sister, Clara Stadley, and her brother, Carl Kaaz, both of Watertown, SD; and several nieces and nephews. The Emanuel-Patterson Funeral Home of Milbank is in charge of the arrangements for Mrs. Anna Fish of Milbank, and formerly of rural Twin Brooks, SD. Besides her parents and her husband, a son Ivan, four sisters, four brothers, two daughters-in-law, Dorothy and Signey Fish, and two sons-in law, Donald Karges and Frank Watkins preceded her in death.