Lucille Musil

Lucille Musil, 97, of Yankton SD, passed away peacefully in her sleep while in hospice care at Avera Sister James Majestic Bluffs, Yankton SD. Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:00 a.m. Friday, March 20, 2026, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church with Rev. Thi Pham officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. Burial will be beside her husband Donald in the Sacred Heart Cemetery, Yankton, with luncheon served afterwards at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Online condolences may be sent at www.okfhc.com. Opsahl-Kostel Funeral Home and Onsite Crematory is assisting the family with funeral arrangements.

Lucille was born July 22, 1928, at home on a farm north of Lesterville SD to Richard and Magdalena (Zeeb) Bohlmann. Lucille, the fourth oldest of 11 siblings, was raised on the family farm and attended Odessa #41 (country school) through the 8th grade; a half mile hike across a steep gully and over cattle pastures. Foregoing high school, Lucille stayed home to help her mother raise her siblings. Lucille married Donald Musil of Lesterville on October 17, 1950. While Donald was serving with the Army in Korea, she stayed with and helped her in-laws, Julia (Maresh) and John Musil with their mercantile store in Lesterville. When Donald returned from Korea, he and Lucille lived in Denver CO while Donald served out the rest of his Army enlistment as a clerk typist at Fitzsimons Army Hospital. They returned to Lesterville to work at the Musil family store upon Donald’s honorable discharge. They then moved to Scotland, to Yankton, and eventually settled in Mission Hill SD where they raised three sons.

Raised during the Great Depression, Lucille learned early how to make do with what was available and save items for later use. She sewed most of her own tops and dresses, starting on a treadle powered sewing machine of her mother’s, and enjoyed growing vegetables in her garden for canning especially cucumbers for pickles. She also canned peaches, pears, and apples bought in town. Picking wild elderberries from the countryside became an annual summertime event, thereby keeping a ready supply of jelly available for sandwiches. Lucille had a keen eye for flowers and enjoyed tending beds alongside the house and edges of the garden with multiple colors of Irises, tulips, and hollyhocks but her favorite was bleeding hearts. During the early 1970s, Lucille worked as a librarian at Sacred Heart School and eventually as a Driver’s Examiner for the State of South Dakota where she retired with 20 years of service. She enjoyed helping young people getting their first driver’s licenses and was prone to indicate which questions needed further consideration to avoid re-taking the written exam. Her most unnerving personal experiences from her career were of a man whose glass eye popped out during an eye exam and a teenager driving forward, up into a tree, rather than backing out of the parking space.

Lucille was always willing to help neighbors, particularly the local widows and widowers in Mission Hill. Lucille had the uncanny ability to strike up a conversation with complete strangers. She was quick witted with a cackle laugh she inherited from her mother. After her boys moved from home, Lucille became an avid trout fishing fanatic with Donald during their annual summer camping vacations to the Black Hills SD and on occasion, catching fish bigger than Donald’s using a cane fly rod and grasshopper bait. Lucille enjoyed bowling with Donald on a mixed doubles team, the “Allygators” and on the Industrial League team of ladies sponsored by the Cinderella Shoppe. She was also active with the Funeral Committee cooking meals for receptions at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Lucille was a ready chauffer for neighbors needing rides into Yankton for church and shopping, driving into her early 90’s but avoided “Broadway Boulevard” with a passion. After a brief hospitalization 7 years after Donald’s passing, she moved into assisted living in Yankton at age 93. Reluctant at first, she eventually enjoyed socializing and being with friends living nearby in the memory wing. She was always appreciative of her caregivers and enjoyed being “spoiled rotten” by their wonderful care and joked about being “too lazy”.

Lucille was preceded in death by her parents Richard and Magdalena Bohlmann, her husband Donald, and her siblings: Oscar, Elmer, Rudolpf, Leslie, Leo, Bernice (Slupe), Daniel, Robert, Melvin, and Mildred (Ruman). Lucille is survived by her youngest sister Janice (Cahoy) of Tabor and her three sons: Kenneth (Georgia) of Greely CO, James (Tammie) of Huron SD, and David (Sandra) of Twin Falls ID; grandchildren: Jared (Rebecca) of Elizabeth CO, Amanda (Eric Gustafson) of Eaton CO, Kiel (Jessica) of Littleton CO, Eric (Sarah) of Big Lake MN, Austin of Brookings SD, and Tessa Rae (Colt Florey) of Huron SD; and great grandchildren: Hanna, Laurel, Abigail and Zoey Gustafson (Amanda and Eric), Quinn and Keller Musil (Jared and Rebecca), Amelia and Wells Musil (Kiel and Jessica), and Gemma and Jett Florey (Tessa Rae and Colt). David Musil is a grandpa, by marriage with Sandra, for: Logan, Niyah, Mason, and Kalen Fernandez.