LaVonne Nyla Cashman, age 62, of Wessington Springs passed away peacefully Saturday August 19, 2023, after a short battle with cancer.
Her celebration of life will be at 2 p.m., August 25 at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Wessington Springs. Her service will be live streamed. A visitation will be held August 24 from 5 to 7 p.m. with a prayer service at 6:30 p.m. at Our Saviors Lutheran Church.
LaVonne was born February 21, 1961 to Donald and Darlene (Barber) Peterson in Wessington Springs, SD. She attended Pleasant View Country School and graduated from Wessington Springs High School in 1979.
Lavonne married Mark Cashman in 1978. Together they had five children together Melissa, Amy, Jason, Aaron and Christopher, but we all know, her favorite children were her grandkids.
LaVonne worked in dietary at Weskota Manor for 41 years, retiring earlier this year. She loved dishing out sarcastic advice to her Manor family, hoping they’d return the favor. She was especially thankful for her Manor coworkers Jodi Starr and Dave Bender.
LaVonne had three favorite weeks; Christmas, fireworks season, and the week of the South Dakota State Fair. At the Fair she loved connecting with family and friends, buying her grandkids stuff they didn’t need, and razzing the camping neighbors.
During Christmas she enjoyed “helping” Santa get way too many presents for her grandkids, decorating with items that annoyed her children, Black Friday shopping before it became lame, and spreading Christmas cheer.
LaVonne started in the “family business” of selling fireworks in 1997 and enjoyed chatting with everyone who came to the stand to buy fireworks. She also enjoyed losing money by giving her grandkids any fireworks they wanted.
Lavonne is survived by her husband, Mark; 5 children Melissa (Merle) Florey, Amy (Troy) Mattke, Jason (Jen) Cashman, Aaron (Chelsea) Cashman, Christopher (Sara) Cashman and; 10 grandchildren Nicholas Florey, Ben, Alex and Will Mattke, Hayes, Harvey, Mico, Kamden, Lucy and Maggie Cashman, with another baby due in September, and many bonus foster grandchildren.
She is also survived by her five siblings Larry (Fran) Peterson, Donna (Wayne) Thompson, Dawn Stender, Linda (Kelly) Uphoff, Lynelle (Ed) Schroeder; her brothers and sisters-in-law, Susan (Todd) Hiles and Mike (Kim) Cashman; many nieces and nephews and their families; her Weskota Manor family; and many great friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her mother and father-in-law and sisterin- law Pam Cashman.
We end this obituary with LaVonne’s signature goodbye “We’ll see you in the funny papers.”
