Marcella A Wells

Marcella (Marcy) Ann Wells, age 85, passed away at Avera Sacred Heart Hospital on August 16, 2026. There will be a Memorial service on Thursday, August 27, 2026 at 2:00 pm in the Allen Chapel of the AME Church at 508 Cedar Street in Yankton, SD.

Marcy was born in Dayton, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Dayton with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and a Master of Arts in Statistics from UC Berkeley. She was an Honors student at the University of Dayton. She was a member of PI MU Epsilon national honorary mathematics fraternity.

She was an accomplished computer programmer before many people knew what that meant. Marcy worked at UC Berkeley after earning her Masters degree. After moving to Yankton, SD, she later worked in a local bank.

She loved learning and educating herself on many different topics. She was a member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) and was taking classes up to 6 months before she passed. She was always the person that took the largest number of OLLI classes in her group. She loved traveling and made trips internationally to places like Greece, Rome, Switzerland, etc.

After her move to South Dakota from California, Marcy formed deep, lasting friendships with some special people who were like family to her and were there until the end.

Marcy is survived by her niece, Robin (John) Holt, niece-in-law Sally Sakalas, great-niece Laura (Greg) Smith, great-nephew Paul (Kelly) Sakalas, great-nephew Lucas Saltman, great-great nieces and nephews Allison and Madeline Smith, George, Henry and Jane Sakalas.

She was preceded in death by her parents Houston and Julia Sakalas, brothers Leo Sakalas and George Sakalas, sisters-in-law Margaret Sakalas and Dora Sakalas, nephew Leo Alan Sakalas and niece Melody Sakalas

To send an online message to the family, please visit www.okfhc.com.