Mary Virginia (Decoteau) Arpan Ashes, Wakte Waste Win "Woman of Good Deeds" 93, of Greenwood

Mary died Saturday, August 29, 2020 at her home in rural Greenwood. Funeral services are 10 AM, Thursday, September 3, 2020 at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Marty. Burial is in St. Paul's Catholic Cemetery. Wake services are Tuesday and Wednesday at the Marty High School Gym in Marty. Peters Funeral Home in Wagner is in charge of arrangements.

Virginia (Grama Gina) was born in Greenwood, SD to Lein Phillip DeCoteau and Amelia Mabel Schunk on September 29, 1926. She joined her older brother Lein Phillip Jr. and her younger sister LaVonne soon joined to make the family complete. Virginia was born and raised in Greenwood and attended school at Pierre Boarding School. During WW2 she relocated to Bremerton, WA where she worked as a ship welder. She then returned to Greenwood and met and married Robert Arpan Sr. and to this union three children were born.

Virginia then moved to Yankton where she lived for many years and raised her children while working at Gurney Seed and Nursery and Ron's Cleaners. When her mother, Amelia became ill she returned to Greenwood to take care of her and lived her life on the banks of the Missouri River where all her relatives before her walked.

Leaving to celebrate her life are her children: Roberta and Clarice of Denver, Lynette and Chop of Greenwood, Kenny and Truman of Wagner and Jace of Sioux Falls. She raised many grandchildren: Vony of Avon, Bryan of Denver, Shawn of rural Marty, Stuart of Greenwood, Calvin of Wagner and Susan of NC and was helping raise two great-grandchildren: Demetrius and MaryVirginia (Honeygirl) of Greenwood. She has many, many relatives who are also grieving alongside her children and grandchildren.

Virginia is preceded in death by her parents: Lein and Amelia DeCoteau; her brothers: Francis and Lein; her sister LaVonne; children: Lein "Robin" Arpan, Mabel "Dicey" Thompson and Francis Charles; her grandparents and many, many aunts, uncles and cousins.

Grama Gina was a very sweet, loving and caring mother. She loved her family so much and although she could not see them all, she remembered them in her prayers everyday. She was the very proud grandmother of 33 grandchildren, 77 great-grandchildren, 27 great-great-grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild whom sadly she never got to meet.

Mary Virginia DeCoteau Arpan Ashes was a very, very strong Sisseton/Yankton Sioux Winyan. She reached the age of 93 winters and was just shy of 30 days to her 94th birthday. She had many, many friends throughout her years on Mother Earth and her life is celebrated by many and she will never be forgotten.

She had seen a lot and lived through a lot in her 93 years and 11 months of living but this year of 2020 was the most challenging because she could not visit or go around like she used to. She prayed daily for an end to this pandemic. She wanted her family safe and made the comment often that "it scared her, she had never seen anything like this".