Raegan M. Nelson

Funeral services for Raegan Marie Nelson, age 14 of rural Arlington will be 3:30 PM, Sunday, October 20, 2024 at Trinity Lutheran Church of Arlington with Pastor Brian Ricke officiating. Visitation will be Sunday, October 20, 2024 from 12:30 PM to service time at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Arlington. Interment will be in the Badger Cemetery. Family prefers memorial’s. Arrangements are with Crawford-Osthus Funeral Chapel www.crawfordosthus.com, Arlington, Lake Preston, and Oldham. Funeral service will be live streamed via our website.

Raegan Marie Nelson was born to parents Tucker and Jamie (Nessan) Nelson in Jackson, Wyoming during the early morning of November 6, 2009. Raegan’s life was tragically cut short October 1, after a vehicle accident on the way to school September 27, 2024.

Raegan was an amazing young woman. She was beautiful inside and out. She was a wonderful daughter, a loving big sister, a dedicated and loyal teammate, and a talented artist and musician. She attended school at Sioux Valley School in Volga, SD and had made many great friends there. She was welcomed with open arms and had made a home for herself there. She put everything she had into everything she did and her passion for her activities was easily recognized by smiles and enthusiasm. Raegan was a proud member of FCCLA and had earned a trip to their national convention in Seattle last June. She had an amazing time and placed 7th in the nation in a mock job interview star event. Raegan also participated in 4H as a member of the Kingsbury Country Spring Laker club.

Unless a college softball team came calling, she probably would have ended up at South Dakota State and playing in the Dakota Pride Marching Band. She loved the Jackrabbits and wanted a career in music. Teaching music and coaching would have probably been in her future. She enjoyed helping young kids at camps and helped her sisters and brother in the back yard. Her first instrument was the flute and took to it quickly and was so proud of the judge’s comments at her first solo contest when she said, “I wish I had a flute player like you.” She participated in area honor bands and played her flute for special music in her last Sunday School Christmas program.

Raegan had to find a different instrument for jazz band and picked up the saxophone, and how quickly she took to it inspired her to take on another, the piccolo. Ms. Ward asked her if she would be willing to play the piccolo because there was a piccolo part in a particular piece she wanted to play, and Raegan took it as quite an honor to be asked and couldn’t say no. She wanted to learn how to play the trumpet and baritone eventually because she said “All the boys play them so there is too much flute at the football field Friday nights. We need more brass!” She already sounded like a conductor.

On the softball field is where Raegan was really starting to shine. She could and was happy to play anywhere the coaches asked her. If you asked her where she wanted to play, she would say I can play anywhere they need me. I am quick enough and have a good enough arm to play shortstop and third base, but we have other girls that are good there, so I will use my speed in the outfield. She even dabbled in pitching and made it the center of her 7th grade science fair project. She wanted to see how different grips affected the speed of her pitching. She was improving all the time and beginning to feel like there wasn’t a pitch she couldn’t hit, a play she couldn’t make, or a base she couldn’t steal. She loved her softball teammates and referred to them as her big sisters quite often. Raegan also played basketball and volleyball and ran track. Raegan’s first basketball coach described her as “One of the hardest working basketball players on the floor I have ever coached.” She loved to shoot 3 pointers but took pride in doing the “dirty work” on the court like setting screens and rebounding. She was also a relentless defender and took immense pride in steals and assists. At the suggestion of her track coach she started running the 400 this past year and she took to it quickly. She got 1st place on a cold, wet, and windy April day. I don’t know who was prouder, her or us.

Raegan was an independent learner and was teaching herself Korean and learning about all things Korean because she developed quite an affection for K-pop music. You could find her in her free time learning dances to her favorite songs or just listening to her favorite songs while she painted and drew or worked on homework. She could take an hour to do the simplest worksheet because we would often find her doing more singing along and dancing than actually working on her homework. We joked with Raegan when she was getting frustrated learning Spanish for school that “Learning two languages at the same time is pretty tough!”

Raegan was baptized and confirmed at Badger Lutheran church. She took her confirmation very seriously. She was supposed to go through her lessons with a parent so we could help answer questions, but she insisted doing them by herself because “I want to find my own path to God and learn about him on my own.” She did and took the lessons to heart. In defending her faith, she said the most important thing Christians can do is to love one another and be kind and help each other. She was a strong in her faith and believed in showing kindness and love. She is now experiencing that love in the arms of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have heard countless instances where Raegan helped a friend or was there for someone that needed it, whether it was helping someone smile when they were having a tough day or opening their carton of milk at the lunch table.

Raegan loved picking out and planting flowers with her mother and grandmother and like most little girls loved butterflies. Her class learned all about butterflies with Mrs. Clelland in kindergarten and how Monarch butterfly caterpillars only ate milk weed. Raegan saw me mowing weeds that next summer and made me stop the tractor to tell me under no circumstances was I to mow down any milk weed. To this day I do anything I can to leave the milkweed alone. Just for Raegan. We have contacted McCrory Gardens in Brookings, SD and would like memorials be sent there in lieu of cut flower arrangements, to be used for flowers and pollinators that can be enjoyed by her many friends and family for years to come.

Raegan is survived by her parents, Jamie (Nessan) and Tucker Nelson, her brother, Braddock, and sisters, Aubree and Amelia. Her grandparents, Susan (Fear) and Doug Nessan of Big Piney, Wyoming and Joanne (Carlson) and Paul Nelson of Hetland, SD. Great Grandmothers, Marie (Koisti) Nessan of Sioux Falls, SD and Betty (Budd) Fear of Big Piney, WY. Aunts and Uncles: Jennifer (Nessan) and Phil Zimmerman of Laramie, WY and their children, Kasyn, Chloe, and Caleb. Janelle (Nessan) and Cody Phillips of Eaton, CO. and their children, Connor, Millie, and Madden. Jan (Nelson) and Gregg Linneman of Hartford, SD and their children, Grant and his wife Alyssa, Laura, Jack, and many more family members and friends.

Preceded in death were Great Grandparents, Clint Nessan, Frank Fear, Elof and Inga Nelson, and Donald and Lillian Carlson, and Uncle Brad Nelson.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Raegan M. Nelson, please visit our floral store.