SLEEPY EYE–Alda L. Rydin, age 94 of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota died on Friday, September 12, 2025, at River Valley Health and Rehabilitation in Redwood Falls, Minnesota surrounded by the love of her family. Visitation will be held on Monday, September 29, 2025, from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at Sturm Funeral Home in Sleepy Eye. Visitation will continue on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Sleepy Eye. A funeral service will be held on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, at Trinity Lutheran Church at 11:00 a.m. The clergy will be Pastor David Nissen. Interment will be at Lake Eunice Evangelical Free Cemetery near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Arrangements are with Sturm Funeral Home in Sleepy Eye. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.sturmfh.com. Memorials may be given to Trinity Lutheran Women.

Alda Lenora Jorve Rydin was the youngest child, born to Alfred Jorve and Hazel Hammer Jorve of Halstad, Minnesota on March 2, 1931, sister to Donald, Hjordis, Robert and Arlene, who have all preceded her in death. Her father, who died at the age of 35 of heart disease, wasn’t alive to see his youngest daughter born. Her brother Donald died an unfortunate death in WWII, when she was just ten years old, and had been Alda’s hero, and the one to help raise Alda. Hazel, a single mother of 5 during the depression, instilled in Alda the necessity of hard work, without self-pity, and the ability of a woman to be an independent entrepreneur. In later years, Alda cared for her sister Arlene upon their mother’s passing in 1993 until Arlene’s demise in 2001.

Alda spent summers on the Hammer Farm in Rothsay, Minnesota with her cousin Joy, helping in farm life and playing in the haybarns, during the years of the Great Depression and the horrors of WWII, accepting of the conditions of life at the time, and going without. She learned terms of “keep a stiff upper lip” and “carry on” and family responsibility.

Having attended a two year teaching college at Moorhead State College, and where she met her husband John Rydin, following his return from the service, she went on to begin teaching elementary school in Brainard, Minnesota prior to marriage in 1953, which then led to a move to Davenport Iowa, where the first two of their daughters were born in 1954 and 1956. A move to S. Minneapolis was the result of John’s career move, whereupon the next two daughters were born in 1959 and 1962 and Alda focused on raising children and living the dream of a little white house and picket fence in a family oriented neighborhood, and where she became a woman living amongst the 60’s and 70’s of women’s liberation, civil rights and the Vietnam War, and earnest to learn about her place in the changing world.

1966 was a move to Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, and a return to teaching at the Sleepy Eye Public School, first with special education, and then to the realm of elementary education where she lovingly taught for 30 years until her retirement in 1996. Teaching was her passion, and during this time she returned to Mankato State University to fulfill her dream of earning her bachelor’s degree in science/education.

Not only was Alda passionate about education, but about community services as well, including WELCA, General Federation of Women’s Club, Red Hat Society, and serving on the library board secondary to her love of books and learning. She sang in the Trinity Lutheran Church choir and participated in the bell choir. Dollars for Scholars was another campaign she found value in. Her love of making lefse was another of Alda’s passions and she delighted in making each piece perfectly round.

More than anything was John and Alda’s love of her 4 daughters and the offspring, both biological and adopted, of which there are 14 in all, as well as 7 great-grandchildren. Following the passing of John Rydin in 1989, at the young age of 62, Alda began a family legacy of providing a family weeklong legacy at a Detroit Lakes Resort, for nearly 30 years which kept family members close to each other despite moving out of state. There wasn’t a summer that she wasn’t in her bathing suit playing with the kids in the lake, kayaking, paddle boarding, golfing (where she taught us to address the ball “hello ball!”, go cart racing, and participating in adventures.

During the years between retirement and her untimely passing, Alda’s joy was in sewing quilts and school bags for the missions of Trinity Lutheran Church as well as for the Trinity Church High School graduates. She participated with the ladies of the church serving at various functions, including weddings and funerals, proud to be of service.

Alda loved life and all it offered, and all the people she knew along the way in her international traveling, which included being an adult foreign exchange student in China, among many others. She relished her relationships with her friends and coworkers in Sleepy Eye, as well as maintaining her childhood friends.

Alda and John were blessed with four daughters and their families: Virginia (Michael) Sluss, children, Eric and Sarah, grandchildren, Wyatt and Cassidy, Ethan and Olivia; Ann Marie (Edward Krogness) Rydin, children, Johanne, Anil, and Hana; Karen (Paul) Schroeder, children, Alison, John, Leah, Ashly, and Samuel, grandchildren, Kimora, Kenzo, and Brookelynn; and Elizabeth (Todd) Hoffman, children, Claire (Zoe), Hannah (Anna), Daniel (Adela), and Kyle (Kevin).

Alda was preceded in death by her husband of 36 years, John Rydin in 1989 and her eldest daughter, Virginia (Ginny Sluss) in 2014.

Our eternal gratitude to those who shared their time by listening to Alda’s life stories and being part of her life.

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