Relda Hultquist, 96, Red Oak, passed away peacefully on Thursday, October 29, 2020 at the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital, Red Oak.

Relda Mae (Johnson) Hultquist was born on March 1, 1924 in Page County, near Essex, to Willard and Eva Whitman Johnson. She attended country schools in Page and Montgomery County, living near Wallin as a teenager where she met her neighbor Merlin Hultquist. Relda and Merlin were united in marriage on March 21, 1942 at Mamrelund Lutheran Church, Stanton. Relda and Merlin were active members of Mamrelund Lutheran, Morton Mills Community Church and Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Red Oak, where she was active in church circles. Early in their marriage, they hosted visiting Christian speakers and missionaries in their home and gave financial support to a missionary family in Ecuador.

Relda and Merlin started farming near Stanton and then rented a farm on the West Nodaway River near Morton Mills. Eventually, they were able to purchase their own land near Elliott, where they farmed for 15 years and raised six children before retiring from farming and moving to Red Oak in 1969, where Merlin pursued a second career as Fieldman and Member of the Board of Directors of Pioneer Mutual Insurance Company. During her busy years as co-head of a farm family and mother of six, Relda commuted to Red Oak to work in the nursery at Murphy Memorial Hospital. She loved this work and continued at the hospital for several years after moving to Red Oak. Relda loved fishing and vacationing at Lake Okoboji with her family. Her interests also included handiwork of all kinds.

Relda was proud to be a distant relative of Marcus Whitman, Eli Whitney and John Whitney, who arrived in the United States from England in 1635 on the ship "Elizabeth and Ann." She was also proud of her Cherokee heritage. Relda became a student of genealogy and a member of the Montgomery County Historical Society. She searched archives throughout the United States and compiled several volumes of complete family trees, annotated with perspectives on the country of origin, culture, immigration history and details of several generations. A principal focus of her research was the Civil War, the Battle of Chattanooga and the Battle of Pea Ridge, at which she had ancestors who fought on both the Union and Confederate sides. Both of her parents were from large families and Relda traveled to maintain friendships with her aunts, uncles and cousins in several states. She also researched and published a genealogy and history of Merlin's Swedish ancestors and traveled to Sweden to meet his distant cousins, with whom she kept a lifelong correspondence.

From childhood, Relda was an excellent athlete, playing softball on the Wallin team and taking up golf in her later years. After moving to Red Oak, she and Merlin became members of the Red Oak Country Club, where Relda soon achieved a record as one of the Club's best women golfers, winning Club championships. She was a member of several ROCC teams representing Southwest Iowa in state tournaments, scoring two holes-in-one during such competition. Relda and Merlin won a ROCC Couples Tournament in 1983, aided by Relda's hole-in-one on the 213-yard hole #5. She was proud of her five lifetime holes-in-one. For over 20 years, Relda and Merlin traveled to the Phoenix-Mesa area for Winter golf with friends and family.

Despite her many accomplishments, she was most proud to be a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother, following the lives of, and maintaining correspondence with, her diverse descendants, who knew her to be exceptionally welcoming, loving and accepting of each of them.

Relda was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Merlin on December 26, 2012, brothers Amos Lance Johnson and Larence Johnson, grandson Nicholas Westover and son-in-law Dawane Petersen. She is survived by her six children, Gary and wife Polly of Rancho Mirage, California, Marvin and wife Jeannie of Vinita, Oklahoma, Carolyn Johnson and husband Greg of Stanton, Lynn and wife Cyndi of Topeka, Kansas, Ron and wife Sharon of Red Oak and Joan Curtis and husband Sam of Red Oak. Survivors include sixteen grandchildren and step grandchildren, over forty great-grandchildren residing in Arkansas, California, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington and South Korea, one great-great grandchild, many nieces and nephews, other relatives and friends, including those at Arlington Place in Red Oak, where she and Merlin lived for many years.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, October 31, 2020 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Red Oak, with burial to follow at Mamre Cemetery near Stanton. Remembrances and condolences may be shared with the family at Bethlehem Lutheran prior to the Saturday morning service.

Memorials are suggested to Montgomery County Memorial Hospital Foundation, Bethlehem Lutheran Church or Montgomery County Historical Society.

Sellergren-Lindell-DeMarce Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.