Celebration of Life honoring Frank and Marlene Turk held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Renca Dunn, Daily Moth Reporter: Last week Thursday on March 20th, there was a Celebration of Life for Dr. Frank Turk and Marlene Turk and their dog Jenny. The memorial service was held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at Peace Lutheran Church. The Peace Lutheran Church is a hearing church, but has a Deaf ministry part of it so that space was hosted at the church. They offered live streaming of the service for those who cannot make it in person. I watched the service through live streaming so this is a recap of what I watched.
As the service opened, there was a man named Larry who came on stage and said a few words then a prayer. After that, an interpreter came on stage and sang the Amazing Grace song. As soon as the song was over, Frank Jr. and Marianne- two of Frank Turk’s three children came on stage. The both of them shared their memories with their father. They said that Frank loved people, the Deaf community, and everyone. The children grew up watching their father give so much back to the Deaf community esp ecially with the Deaf youth.
Frank Jr. mentioned that he had to go to Frank and Marlene’s house to clean out the area and went to Frank's office. He saw so many photos of Frank with other people around the wall. Frank also had a list of people that he connected with. This just shows how much he really loves people. Also, Frank Jr. mentioned that Frank was a father to his three children, but also a father to many of us here.
[Full-screen image showing a screenshot of Frank Jr. and Marianne]
The next person was Julie Aiken who is Marlene’s niece. Julie flew in from Arizona. Julie said she will miss Marlene very much as they were close. She said that Marlene gave back a lot to the Midwest area. She loved Iowa School for the Deaf. Marlene graduated there and did work there. Marlene was very talented with sewing clothes, especially costumes. She would sew costumes for plays at ISD and other places. Marlene loved Deaf children. Julie said she will miss Marlene and she has a hole in her heart. Julie did thank people who came to the church for the service and those who were watching through live streaming.
[Full-screen image showing a screenshot of Julie Aiken]
After the family members said their parts, different community members came on stage to share their favorite memories, stories, funny ones, etc. about Frank and Marlene. Some familiar people came on stage like Jonathan Scherling who was the former president of Nebraska Association of the Deaf as he shared his memories about Marlene. Sarah Young Bear-Brown who is a Indigenous activist and knew Marlene as well. Kevin from South Dakota Association of the Deaf who shared that Frank gave back a lot to SDAD club and Marlene as well. There were many people who came up who grew up with them, worked with them, who have known them for many years, etc. We will show you some screenshots from the live streaming service.
[Screenshots showing various presenters: Jonathan, Maurine, Kim, Jeff, Jody, Patty, Sarah, Kevin, and Chad]
After those people came up, the last person that came up was Ben Soukup who is the founder of the Communication Services of the Deaf (CSD). He made some closing remarks about Frank Turk and about Marlene too and how they were dedicated to the Deaf community.
[Screenshot showing Ben Soukup]
Everything was wrapped up in about an hour and a half. I looked at the website and it seems that the live stream link is still available if you want to watch it from last week. We will put the link in this transcript.
This wraps up the memorial service for Frank and Marlene. May we always remember their stories through people’s stories in this Deaf community.