Jane Becker passed into God's eternal care on Saturday, July 25, 2026. Her Celebration of Life will be held at 2:00 PM, Friday, August 21, 2026, at the Dow Rummel Halladay Peterson Chapel, 1321 W. Dow Rummel St., Sioux Falls, SD 57104, with visitation beginning one hour prior.

Irma Jane Laase was born on October 29, 1935, in Hastings, Nebraska. She was the third of five children of Irma and Leroy Laase. She is known to friends and family by her middle name, Jane. In 1940, the Laase family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where her father accepted a position on the faculty of the University of Nebraska.

Some of Jane's happiest times in childhood were at the family cabin at Lake Ericson. At this retreat in the Nebraska sandhills, Jane spent hours with her siblings on and in the water – swimming, canoeing, and fishing with a cane pole and bobber, while in the evenings, playing Hearts and eating popcorn. Summer also meant spending a week or two at Camp Kiwanis on the Blue River with other Camp Fire Girls. Jane stayed active in Camp Fire Girls into senior high school, achieving the high rank of Torchbearer in both Aquatics and Camp Craft.

Jane described herself as uncoordinated in sports and detested the required physical education classes in junior and senior high. The one area where she excelled was swimming. Jane passed all levels of Red Cross swim requirements, including senior lifesaving. She volunteered to help with Red Cross summer swim lessons at the outdoor municipal pool, participated in city swim meets, and at her high school started a girls' after-school synchronized swimming club.

Jane graduated from Lincoln High School in 1952 and enrolled at the University of Nebraska at the age of sixteen. While participating in productions at the University Theatre, she met her future husband, Ronald Becker. Both were inducted into Nebraska Masquers, the university's chapter of National Collegiate Players. Jane was a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority and Phi Beta Kappa scholastic honorary.

In the summers of 1953 and 1954, Jane was a counselor at Camp Hochelaga on Lake Champlain in Vermont. Using the outdoor skills she had learned in Camp Fire Girls, she taught young girls how to cook over an open campfire and bake in a reflector oven, took groups on overnight campouts, and supervised day hikes in the Green Mountains. She introduced campers to S'mores, a relatively unknown treat in the 50s.

The summer prior to Jane and Ron's senior year, they were married in Lincoln on July 16, 1955, on the hottest day of the year. Following their graduation from the University of Nebraska, the couple moved to western Nebraska. At Mitchell and Chadron, Jane taught high school English and speech while Ron was the band choral director. Using their joint theatre experience, the couple collaborated to produce ambitious high school musicals, including "Carousel" and "The King and I."

In 1960, when the Beckers moved to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Jane became a full-time homemaker and mother to their two children, Randy and Brenda. She taught the junior high Sunday School class at Plymouth Congregational Church, was Randy's Cub Scout leader, and directed her church's Old English Dinner, complete with boar's head and medieval costumes. Jane also became serious about improving her cooking skills; she exchanged recipes with good cooks and collected over 100 cookbooks, reading each newly acquired cookbook from cover to cover. Christmas open houses became a tradition and featured thirty or more of Jane's best cookies and homemade candies. With childcare assistance from grandparents, Jane helped Ron chaperone his Scottsbluff High School band when they marched in the Kennedy Inaugural Parade in 1961 and represented Nebraska in concert at the New York World's Fair in 1964.

In 1969, the family returned to Lincoln for Ron to complete his doctorate. With both children in school, Jane worked part-time for Stanford Research Institute, coordinating a testing project in the Lincoln public schools for the federal Follow Through program (an extension of Head Start for grades 1-3). She was a dedicated leader for her daughter's Blue Bird and Camp Fire groups and, as a volunteer, trained new Camp Fire leaders city-wide. Some of the best family times with the children were at Lake Ericson, staying in the same Laase cabin where Jane had vacationed as a youngster.

The Becker family left Nebraska in 1976, moving to South Dakota when Ron accepted an administrative position with the Sioux Falls School District. After taking classes in tax preparation, Jane worked twelve years preparing tax returns at Connie Buskohl, CPA. She was instrumental in helping the firm establish its specialty of clergy taxes. After her retirement, Jane served for a number of years as a volunteer for the IRS Tax Aide program at the Center for Active Generations.

At their Sioux Falls home on Crestview Drive, Jane discovered her green thumb. She maintained a large vegetable garden, canning and freezing the excess produce. Her caged tomato plants grew six feet tall, and the cucumber patch produced enough for Jane to preserve four varieties of pickles each summer. With her extensive, weedless flower beds, friends described her yard as "looking like a park."

When Jane's physical limitations made gardening difficult, and Ron was weary of cutting grass and shoveling snow, they moved to a Sioux Falls townhouse. During their 21 years of living in the River Ridge Townhome Association, Jane served as President, Secretary-Treasurer, and chair of the Maintenance and the Finance Committees – and rewrote the Association bylaws. She was virtually the historian for the Association, and if one had a question, they were told: "go see Jane Becker."

Without yard responsibilities and being newly retired, Jane and Ron were now free to travel extensively abroad. They visited more than 70 countries on 6 continents, with China, Iceland, and Costa Rica among their favorite destinations. Jane enjoyed researching a country before they traveled there, then taking hundreds of trip photos and, upon returning home, putting together photo journals of their adventures. When the rigors of foreign travel were too much with her decreasing mobility, the couple wintered in Kerrville, Texas as snowbirds.

In 1999, Jane completed a family cookbook, a project she worked on sporadically for 21 years. As a way of preserving family history, she compiled recipes from five generations of her relatives, adding anecdotes of family life centered around food and short biographies with photos of the recipe contributors.

Jane was a 70-year member of P.E.O. and a charter member of Sioux Falls Chapter CL. She served as president of P.E.O. chapters in Scottsbluff and Lincoln, Nebraska, and Sioux Falls. For twenty-some years, Jane was chair of CL's Educational Loan Fund committee, recommending women for low-interest P.E.O. loans so they might complete their post-secondary education. On Chapter CL's 35th anniversary, the group honored her with a named grant for the P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education. Jane was privileged to attend two International Conventions of P.E.O.

Jane was a member of Sioux Falls First Congregational Church UCC, having served as Moderator and on the Board of Missions, Board of Trustees, and bell choir, as well as the national UCC Board for World Ministries. In 2017, Jane and Ron began a new phase in their lives, drastically downsizing before moving into an independent living apartment at Dow Rummel Retirement Village.

Jane is survived by her beloved husband and best friend of 71 years, Ron; son Randy of Lincoln, NE; daughter Brenda Jane Frevik (Alan) of Dell Rapids, SD; four grandchildren – Amanda Jane Roth (Ryan), Jesse Becker, Brian Frevik, and Alexis Aaseng (Domenic); and three great-grandchildren, Macie Jane-Ann, Tyson Roth, and Sophia Aaseng; brother-in-law, Frank Walker; and sister-in-law, Lois Laase. She was preceded in death by her parents; grandson, Tucker Frevik; brother, Paul Laase; sisters, Joyce Peacock, Sally Walker and Nancy Bauer; and brother-in-law, Joe Peacock.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to the Dow Rummel Chapel Endowment Fund, c/o Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation, 200 Cherapa Place, Sioux Falls, SD 57103, or the Leroy and Irma Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o University of Nebraska Foundation, 1010 Lincoln Mall, Lincoln, NE 68508.