Marlene Boer, age 92, of Madison, passed away on Friday, May 1, 2026 at Madison Regional Health System.
Memorial service will be at 11 AM on Tuesday, May 19th at Madison United Methodist Church with Pastor Peggy Hanson officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service. A luncheon will take place immediately after the service followed by inurnment in Rose Hill Cemetery, Wentworth.
The family prefers memorials to: Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association, PO Box 105, Glenolden, PA 19036 or Madison United Methodist Church (Building or Choir Fund), 304 N. Egan Ave., Madison, SD 57042 or Rose Hill Cemetery, 23686 465th Ave., Wentworth, SD 57075.
Marlene Mae Richter was born on July 9, 1933, to Laura Viola (Nugent) and Herman William Richter at Madison Community Hospital in Madison, SD. She grew up on the Richter family farm north of Junius, in Farmington township of Lake County. She attended the Richter country school for grades 1 through 8.
She attended Beadle High School (also known as the Eastern State Training School), graduating in 1951. Her favorite activities in high school included chorus and marching band (playing the cornet).
She met Eugene Boer, her future husband, when she was a freshman and he was a senior at Beadle.
After graduation, she worked as a gift clerk at Madison Printing Co. (for Mr. Stein and Mr. Dibble), sharing a room in Madison with her friend Marian Sunde, until her marriage to Eugene on February 16, 1952.
Following their wedding, they moved to Sioux Falls for about a year. They moved back to the Richter family farm while she was pregnant with their first child.
After her three children were in school, she was employed at Campbell’s Drive-In and Nicky’s Restaurant. She also was a poll worker for elections for many years. She enjoyed her life-time membership and circle activities at the United Methodist Church in Madison. She spent many hours astutely collecting and carefully documenting genealogical information and photographs regarding the Richter, Nugent, Boer, and Clarksean families. After her husband’s retirement from farming, they moved into Madison in 1995. She worked for several years for Welcome Wagon, distributing information and gifts to new residents and college students. She and her husband enjoyed traveling all over the United States, especially to places where she could visit with relations and collect family lore.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister (Joyce), her brother (Robert), and her husband (Eugene).
Marlene is survived by her three children, Michael Boer of Seattle, WA, Margene Boer of Clive, IA, and Lauren Boer of Madison, SD; one grandchild, Elias Arkham of Seattle, WA, as well as many nieces, nephews, and cousins, all of whom she followed with loving care as part of her interest in genealogy.
