Darlene Kainz

 

March 13, 1939 – January 30, 2023

Darlene Bernice Kainz, 83, of Custer, South Dakota, passed away January 30, 2023, at Fountain Springs Health Care in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Darlene was born March 13, 1939, in Grand Marais, Minnesota to Walter and Alta Hall Schulte. She loved growing up on the North Shore of Lake Superior. As a child she sang on the radio station owned by her grandfather Emil Hall. As a teen she worked as a soda jerk at Leng’s Fountain, where she met Richard “Dick” Kainz. They were married at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Grand Marais on June 29, 1957.

Darlene and her family spent the next eight years travelling across Minnesota, Nebraska, and the Dakotas with Kainz Contractors, providing some of the first electrical service to rural areas. They settled in Custer in 1965, where they raised four children and built a home together on their little piece of heaven in the Black Hills.

Darlene loved singing, playing guitar, and creating art including oil paintings and stained glass. She was a founding member of the Winter Singers, performing throughout the Black Hills for many years. She sewed, cooked, baked, gardened, raised chickens, and occasionally worked at the local flower shop. As a tour guide for Golden Circle Tours, she enjoyed sharing the history and beauty of the Black Hills with visitors from around the world. She helped establish and was active in Custer Lutheran Fellowship, and the French Creek neighborhood friends’ group. In later years she enjoyed traveling to visit her children and grandchildren, meeting with her friends, and touring with the church senior group.

Darlene was preceded in death by Dick, her husband of 54 years, in 2011; her brother Don; and her beloved sister-in-law Melva Smith Schulte.

She is survived by her brother Walter “Butch” (Rhonda) Schulte of Grand Marais, MN; children Greg (Sherry) Kainz of Arvada, CO; Kristi (Allen) Scott of Brookings, SD; Lisa (Michael) Schaertl of Shortsville, NY; Jeff (Lara) Kainz of Mt. Vernon, WA. She has eleven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be held from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on Friday, February 10, 2023, at Chamberlain-McColley’s Funeral Home in Custer, SD.

Memorial services will be held at 10:00 a.m., on Saturday, February 11, 2023, at Custer Lutheran Fellowship in Custer, SD, followed by committal services at Custer Cemetery and then a luncheon at Custer Lutheran Fellowship.

A memorial has been designated and memorial donations should be marked payable to “Endowment for Custer County Historical Society” with a memo noting “Courthouse Museum in memory of Darlene Kainz”.