Beverly Lyman

Dates

Obituary

Beverly Lyman, 90, of Mitchell, SD, passed away peacefully Saturday, September 26, 2026, in her home at Countryside Living in Mitchell. Funeral services will be 10:30 AM Saturday, October 10, at First Lutheran Church in Mitchell. Arrangements by Bittner Funeral Chapel.

Beverly A. Lyman was born November 18, 1935, in Willmar, MN to Harold “Happy” Kroona and Ruth Arvidson Kroona.  She was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith and was active in her church, teaching Sunday School for adults and children and working in the kitchen.

She attended grade school in Kandiyohi, graduated from Willmar High School in 1953, and got her journalism degree from the University of Minnesota in 1957.  After college, she worked as a journalist in Racine, WI for two years, until she decided to embark on her whirlwind trip around the world. 

She was bitten by the travel bug as a young woman, when she got a note from a college friend looking for a companion to join her on a trip to visit her boyfriend (who was teaching in Malaysia). Bev, then 24 and working as a journalist in Wisconsin, accepted the offer for a ten-day trip - which quickly expanded into a three-and-a-half month odyssey!  “If we’re going halfway around the world, we might as well go all the way around it,” her friend said.  And so they did.

That trip was the start of wonderful adventures for a kid from Kandiyohi, a tiny town in Minnesota.  Bev proved to be an enthusiastic traveler who ultimately visited all 50 states, 50 countries, and all seven continents.  She loved telling stories of her travels, what she had learned from them, and how she had seen enough castles for two lifetimes!

When she returned home, she was employed by the St. Paul (MN) Dispatch for a year – during which time she met Ralph W. Lyman.  In 1961, Bev and Ralph married, and subsequently raised three children - Richard, Kathleen, and Susan - on their farm southeast of Mitchell.

Her warmth and social ease, along with her journalism background, provided her with a never-ending supply of topics for conversation - and although she enjoyed her social time, she was equally happy alone in her recliner reading a book, or playing online Scrabble and other word games.  Bev will be fondly remembered as a loving mother, grandmother, friend, and traveler - whose quick wit and endless curiosity led her to make lifelong friends everywhere she went. 

She is survived by her children: Richard Lyman and his wife Fabienne Champion of Irvine, CA, Kathleen and Scott Balcom of Mitchell, SD, and Susan Lyman of South San Francisco, CA. She will be missed by her grandchildren: Adam Balcom and his wife Jessica Prickett of Mitchell, Josie Balcom and her husband Joe Geis of Sioux Falls, SD, and Jonathan Lyman of Sioux Falls, SD. She is also survived by her sister, Ramona McComish, of Phoenix, AZ, and by her lifelong friend and traveling companion, Bea Ronning Ourada of Spicer, MN.  

Bev was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, and her sister Sharon Glosimodt.

Anyone wishing to make a memorial in Bev’s honor can donate to Lutheran World Relief.

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