Terry Lynn Zierke

HAWARDEN, IOWA ~ Terry Lynn Zierke, 69, on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, was welcomed home by her loving Savior Jesus. Her battle with cancer lasted 18 years. Her first diagnosis was in 2005 and her second diagnosis came shortly after she retired in 2015, stage 4.

   Funeral Service will be 2:00 p.m. Saturday, September 23, 2023, at Trinity Lutheran Church, LCMS in Hawarden with Rev. Joshua Lowe officiating. She will be laid to rest at Pleasant Valley Cemetery rural Alcester, South Dakota. The service will be livestreamed on the church Facebook Page for those of you who loved her but cannot attend at http://www.trinityhawarden.com. Visitation with the family will be from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the church or during the luncheon following the committal service.

   The Porter Funeral Home in Hawarden is assisting the family. The family prefers memorials be directed to the Avera Cancer Institute at the Prairie Center located on the Avera McKennan Hospital campus or the Hawarden Regional Healthcare Foundation.

   Terry Lynn (Underwood) Zierke was born November 21, 1953, in Lovell, Wyoming to Basil and Norma Underwood.

   Her daughter, Loralie Ann Underwood, (from a previous marriage) was born in 1977.

   Terry began her 33-year career as a Laboratory Technician in 1982, she worked at hospitals in Greybull, Wyoming, Bozeman, Montana, and Hawarden, Iowa. She retired in 2015.

   She met the love of her life, David John Zierke, (drawing his blood) in 1983. The two were united in marriage on July 28, 1984. She gave birth to her first son, John Carl Zierke, in 1985 and her second son, Matthew Ryan Zierke, in 1986. Both were complicated births.

   They have lived near Hawarden, Iowa since December of 1992, where they raised their daughter and two sons on a small acreage located on the South Dakota side of the Big Sioux River.

   While raising her children as the wife of an “over-the-road” trucker, she managed the household, the Emu business, 4H livestock, volunteered at church (almost 20 years volunteering for, then organizing the Labor Day Parade benefit stand hosted at the Trinity Lutheran Church). Terry taught Sunday School for several years and served with the LWML. She had a lifelong hobby of sewing and after retirement found a love for painting with Bob Ross.

   Terry is survived by her husband of 39 years, David John Zierke; daughter, Loralie, son, John; son, Matthew and Clarise (her Daughter in Love);  4 beautiful granddaughters; brother, George; and 5 nieces and nephews.

   Terry was preceded in death by her parents, Basil and Norma Underwood; sister, Judy Porter; and brother, Kenny Underwood.