Darrell E. Lake

1934 - 2022

Darrell E. Lake

Sioux City

Darrell E. Lake, 87, of Sioux City passed away Wednesday, March 2, 2022, after a life well spent.

Service will be held at 1 p.m. on Wednesday at Grace United Methodist Church. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at church. Burial with military honors will be at Hillside Cemetery in Merrill, Iowa. Meyer Brothers Morningside Chapel is handling the arrangements. Online condolences may be made to www.meyerbroschapels.com.

Darrell was born on Dec. 8, 1934, in Merrill, the only son of Frieda and Mearl Lake. He grew up on the Lake family farm just outside of town with his father, mother, and grandparents Grant and Mable Lake. They had a dairy operation along with raising the traditional crops of corn, beans, and oats. They survived the last of the depression and the rationing of the war years, never having to go hungry because they raised everything they needed right at home.

Darrell graduated from Merrill high school in 1952 and attended Westmar College in Le Mars, graduating in 1956 and later received a Masters degree in music education from the University of South Dakota. He taught school as an instrumental music director for 36 years, starting in Sergeant Bluff and advancing to the Sioux City public schools until retirement.

During his time at Westmar College he met Joyce Thiele whom he married in June, 1958. They moved to Sioux City where the couple had two daughters, Janna and Deanna, and later adopted a son, Douglas. They lost Deanna at the age of four, a low spot in their lives. Joyce and Darrell celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary in June of 2021.

Darrell always loved airplanes. He spent a lot of time reading about them and making balsa wood models to fly. He earned his private pilot license during his college years and became an owner of two aircrafts and spent great times flying. In 1957, with a draft notice forthcoming, he joined the Iowa Air National Guard as a military pilot trainee and received his wings in 1958. He flew T-33, F-84, RF-84, F100C with the Air Guard, flying the F-100C for 174 combat missions when the Guard was called up for a year in Vietnam during the Pueblo Crisis. After 28 years he retired from the Guard in 1994 as a Lt. Col.

The other great love (besides his wife and family) was his love of his dance orchestra. His father started a small four-piece group in the late 1930s which Darrell joined when in high school. When his dad passed away in 1986, Darrell took over the Mearl Lake Orchestra (keeping the name in honor of his dad) and expanded it up to 11 pieces. In the band's 70+ years of existence, it has performed a myriad of events, even for the President of the United States during one of his visits to Sioux City. Memories never to be forgotten.

He is survived by his wife, Joyce; daughter Janna and her husband Mark; granddaughter Jerica and her husband Tunji; and son, Douglas and his wife Yolanda, and their children Eviana, Sofia, Camila, and Arath.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Alzheimer's Association at https://act.alz.org/ or 225 N. Michigan Ave., Fl 17, Chicago, IL 60601.