Obituary of Martin Emmanuel Drefs

Martin Emmanuel Drefs was born October 20, 1934 to Emmanuel and Rosina (Fink) Drefs. He died on December 25, 2017 at the age of 83. The celebration of life will be held Friday, December 29 at 10:00 am at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Corsica. Visitation with the family present will be Thursday, December 28 from 5 pm until 8 pm with a 7:00 pm prayer service at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Corsica. Arrangements by Koehn Bros. Funeral Home in Armour.

Martin grew up on a farm in Douglas County, SD and was baptized and confirmed at St. Peter Lutheran Church. He attended and graduated from Armour High School in 1952. He farmed with his mother until he was drafted into the Army in 1957. He was discharged from the Army in 1959 and then served in the South Dakota National Guard for 4 years.

In 1960, he married Shirley Watermiller in Thornton, IA. To this union, five children were born, Rose, Sharlene, Michelle, Martin and Lorena. Martin and Shirley farmed the Drefs home place, then moved to rural Harrison and finally settled near New Holland in 1968. They lived and farmed there for 36 years. In 2004, they retired and moved into Harrison where Martin lived until he entered the Corsica Good Samaritan Center in 2014.

In addition to farming, Martin worked on road construction and then worked as a rural mail carrier for 20 years. He delivered mail on routes in Chamberlain, Geddes, and Corsica. As a mail carrier, he was active in the rural mail carrier’s association.

Martin was an active member of the community. He served his church in various roles, served 3 terms as a county commissioner and was involved in the Resource Conservation and Development program. He sang with the Dakota Jubilee Men's Chorus for several years.

While his family and faith were the most important things in his life, he had many other interests. Martin loved music, a good comic in the Sunday paper, learning about all sorts of things, and most of all visiting with others. He rarely turned down an opportunity to visit or share a cup of coffee with someone. He collected rocks and was fascinated with geology, fossils and how things worked.

Sharing his life until the last day were his wife, Shirley and his children: Rose (Ron) Lauck, Corsica; Sharlene (Eric) Georgesen, Hubbard, Ne; Michelle (Doug) Larson, Mountain Lake, MN; and Lorena (Jeremy) Blom, Huron, SD; a daughter-in-law, Kara Drefs of Southlake, TX; 17 grandchildren; a great-grandchild; 2 sisters, Alma (Marvin) Lau and Elizabeth Villmow; and a brother-in-law, Alvin Heber.

He was preceded in death by his son, Martin John; parents; 2 sisters: Rosina Sundermeyer and Leonida Heber and 2 brothers-in-law: Lawrence Villmow and Vern Sundermeyer.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to an organization of your choice.