It is with saddened hearts that we announce the passing of Eleanor Jean Klostergaard at age 85 on November 22, 2022. Eley was born in and grew up on a farm in Pipestone, Minnesota. After college, she moved to Beresford, SD where she taught school, providing love, care, and knowledge to over 2,200 Beresford children. Eley taught school for 40 years until she retired in 2000.

She then returned back to school shortly after retirement to volunteer for 12 more years in the kindergarten classrooms.  As retired principal, Kevin Nelson, stated: "Eley was usually one of the first to school in the morning and the last to leave at the end of the day. Her compassion for children only exceeded her high expectations for her students. Even after retiring, she returned to the classroom and volunteered countless hours using her teaching skills to help children."

Her friend LeAnne Austin, who was a kindergarten teacher and started teaching in 1975, said that "Eleanor welcomed her and helped her in her first year of teaching in any way she could. Eleanor was admired for her devotion to the students and for her green thumb in taking care of the geraniums that bloomed in LeAnne's kindergarten classroom."

Eley cherished all of her friends. She often had coffee get-togethers with her friends, Debbie Conklin, Sally Dolan, and LeAnne Austin. These were times of love and laughter shared among very special friends. She loved to travel and toured different parts of the United States and Europe after retirement. Eley loved flowers and flowering bushes and had a beautiful well-tended garden in her back yard that she took immaculate care of.

Eley was preceded in death by her parents Peter Hulzebos and Gertrude Hulzebos (VanBeek); her husband, Jim, her daughter Kimberly, her brother Lanny, and her infant brother Perry.

Grateful for having shared her life are her sisters, Lola (Ron) McDonald of Clayton, TX; and Myrna (Ardell) Heyl of Tunas, MO; her brother, Ronny (Shannon) Hulzebos of Harrisburg, SD; and her sister-in-law, Valerie Hulzebos of Osceola, NE. She is also survived my many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and nephews; one great-great-niece and her many friends from the Beresford community.

The family owes a deep debt of gratitude to Bethesda at Beresford and Aseracare Hospice for the loving and attentive care they provided Eley in her final days.

Rest in peace, Eley . . . You left a legacy of dedication, courage, love, and kindness. You will be deeply missed.

Funeral services will be held on Monday, November 28, 2022, at 10 a.m. at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Beresford. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. Following the service, a private family burial will be held at Nazareth Cemetery in Beresford, SD.