Jane Louise Daum

Jane Louise Daum was born November 21, 1930 to Andrew Schut and Hattie (Rozenberg) Schut in Silver Lake, Minn. She passed on to glory April 11, 2022 surrounded by family, peaceful in her trust in Jesus Christ her Saviour. There will be a service for Jane at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 30, 2022, at Community Bible Church in Murdo. She will be laid to rest at 2:30 p.m. at the Murdo Cemetery.

Jane grew up on a series of small farms, guided by faithful parents, and was active in the Dutch Reformed church. She earned her teaching certificate and begin teaching in rural Minnesota. Encouraged by her soft-spoken father Andrew, who himself had given up dreams of becoming a minister to stay on the farm, Jane moved to Denver and continued her love of books and learning by earning a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Denver. She taught in the Denver public school system and enjoyed the thrills of camping and skiing in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.  It was here in Colorado that Jane met the love of her life - talkative, joking and shy in turn, rancher Johnny G. Daum from Okaton, .SD. She was swept off her feet (quite literally once when her flat-land beau scrabbled her right off the ski lift and into the snow), and the two were wed July 1, 1960 in Silver Lake, Minn. and moved to the beautiful Riverview Ranch in the White River Valley of Jones County, S.D., where she lived most of her life.

These early years were eye-opening for a young lady from a quiet, conservative home.  Johnny brought home equal numbers of wild prairie critters to raise and brash young nephews and cousins eager for a life of adventure on the prairie, or hoping to play 9-man football on the Murdo team. Jane’s life became full with day-to-day life on a big South Dakota ranch and she learned to cook for tables-full of hungry young men. She became active in Ladies Aid, the Okaton Dutch Reformed Church, Gideons, and Rock Club.

Just about when her parents and friends were giving up on the idea of little ones arriving, David John was born to much celebration in July of 1963. Brenda Jane came along with a mischievous spirit in 1966, and Ann Marie close to the finish line in 1970, with the doctor tutting that 40 was a bit old for such things. Life became even more full, with school events, cattle shows, 4-H club meetings, Bible camps and family vacations to visit relatives near and far. In this busiest time of her life, Jane was a true homemaker. She fed minds and bodies – gathering from giant gardens and sweet corn patches, grinding wheat to make bread, churning milk into homemade butter and ice cream. Having grown up in the great depression, she knew how to conserve – bread bags fluttered on her clothes line, and she sewed her family’s clothes (at least until middle school when they rebelled!). There was simply no end to the canning that took place in the basement of the ranch house, according to her children. Nothing went to waste - she even cooked up buckets of leftover cracked corn with meat scraps to feed the ranch dogs.

In their later years, Jane and Johnny became Snowbirds, and enjoyed spending their winters with friends and family in Bibleville Park, in Alamo, Texas.  There Jane volunteered in the quilting group, and supported the work of the Rio Grande Bible Institute nearby. After Johnny passed away, Jane divided her time between the ranch in South Dakota with her daughter Ann, time with David and Sonja Daum in Colorado, and in her cozy grandma suite in Brenda and Mark Frisbie’s home in Searcy, Ark.

Jane truly put family first – spending many months with grandchildren when their parents traveled for work. She read books, cooked meals, prayed, cleaned, laughed, scolded when necessary, and mostly just believed in her children and grandchildren. She filled their world with books, and saw no limits to what they could achieve– whether doctor, aerospace engineer, missionary, teacher, student, writer or rancher. She loved and was loved, and has left a legacy of faith and steadfastness for those who miss her dearly.

Jane is survived by her sisters Myrna (Schut) Hoekstra and Arlene (Schut) Smith, children David Daum, Brenda (Daum) Frisbie, and Ann Daum, and her grandchildren Joshua Daum, Nicole Terry, Shenna Daum, Jacob Frisbie, Sophia, Elias and Alethea Kustar

Jane was preceded in death by her parents Andrew and Hattie Schut, brothers Gerrit, Donald and Clarence Schut, infant son Paul Martin Daum, and husband Johnny G. Daum.