NEW ULM–Shirley Goering, age 85, passed away on Saturday, March 9, 2024 at Oak Hills Living Center from complications of Multiple Myeloma.

Funeral service will be 11 a.m. on Friday, March 15, 2024 at the Minnesota Valley Funeral Home SOUTH Chapel in New Ulm, with Pastor Paul Woolverton and Pastor Jo Anne Taylor officiating. Private burial will be in the New Ulm City Cemetery. The service will be live streamed starting at 11 am on Friday on the Minnesota Valley Funeral Homes Facebook page. Visitation will be 4 – 7 p.m. Thursday at the Minnesota Valley Funeral Home SOUTH Chapel in New Ulm, and will continue one hour prior to the service Friday at the funeral home.

Shirley Jean Langstraat was born September 13, 1938 in Sheldon, Iowa to Herman and Grace (Uittenbogaard) Langstraat, the eldest of seven children. She was raised on a farm, active in church and a 4-H member. She attended school at Newkirk, Iowa, graduating in 1955, and graduated in 1957 from Northwestern Jr. College in Orange City, Iowa with an Elementary Teacher’s certificate. She taught second grade in Iowa for two years. She married Verlin Goering at the Newkirk Reformed Church on June 14, 1959. Together they farmed in Milford township, rural New Ulm for 43 years. They were blessed with three daughters and shared 50 years of marriage. During this time Shirley was very involved in the First United Methodist Church in New Ulm, where she served as a Sunday School teacher and superintendent, sang in the choir, was an active member of the Women’s Society, served on many committees and made over 50 church banners.

She was an adult leader in the Milford 4-H Club and worked for 15 years as a paraprofessional at Washington Elementary School in New Ulm. Shirley enjoyed gardening, sewing, quilting, baking, traveling and writing letters. She dearly loved her family and she loved the Lord. Verlin and Shirley moved from their farm to New Ulm in 2008 and she moved to Ridgeway on 23rd Assisted Living in 2016.

Grateful for having shared her life are her family, daughters Valerie Goering of Apple Valley, MN and Nancy Schmiesing (Bruce) and their son Thomas of Apple Valley, MN; sisters, Darlene Harskamp (Ken) of Fort Myers, Florida, Beverly Van Berkel (Gene) of Sioux Center, Iowa, Glenda Jager (Gary) of George, Iowa; brother, Brad Langstraat of Jackson, MN; and nieces, nephews, cousins, dear friends, and step-siblings, Twyla Vaas, Rod and Karlene Van’t Hof, Darryl and Ruth Vaas, and Owen and Eulyn Dykshorn.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Herman and Grace and her second mother Winifred; her husband, Verlin in 2009; daughter, Diane Pullman in 2013; son in law, Wade Pullman in 2001; her brother, Robert, and her brother, Rodney and his wife, Alma; and her in-laws, Daniel and Kitsey Goering, Harold Goering and Gene Goering.

Shirley had specified that memorial funds be given to World Vision, Smile Train, MercyShips.org, and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. Cards and memorials can be mailed to Valerie Goering 6633 154th Street West, Apple Valley, MN 55124.

Special thanks to the staff at Ridgeway on 23rd and Allina Hospice for their excellent care, and to Oak Hills staff during her brief stay there.

Given her strong faith we can be assured she is now in heaven, but she will be dearly missed here on earth by those who knew and loved her.

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