Cynthia A. Silva

Memorial services for Cynthia A. Silva will be held at 2:00PM, Friday, September 4, 2009, at the Brookings Wesleyan Church in Brookings, SD. Visitation will be from 4PM until 7PM, Thursday at Rudes Funeral Home in Brookings.

Cynthia A. Silva was born on September 13, 1956, in Gainesville, Florida, the daughter of Allyn Al and Alice (Stern) Lunden.

Cynthia moved to Oak Ridge, TN with her parents and two sisters and later to Brookings in 1965. She graduated from the Brookings High School in 1975. She then moved to Sioux Falls and worked as a seed technologist at the Cenex Seed Co. in Ellis. She was united in marriage to Gregory Silva on January 21, 1984 and lived in Sioux Falls until 1987 when they moved to Brookings.

She was employed as an official Seed Analyst for her long career in seed testing and research at the South Dakota State Seed Lab at State University. She became Certified as a Seed Analyst in Purity in 1991 and was especially noted for her skill and knowledge of range grasses. She loved her work and trained hundreds of seed analysts in her career at SDSU.

Cindy will always be remembered for her Christian Faith and true optimism in spite of her longtime fight against cancer; for her hard work; for her love; care and concern for family; and for her compassion and care for several homeless cats. She loved playing scrabble, gardening and flowers.

Cindy is survived by her husband Greg; their three children, Anthony (Cristina) Silva, and their three children Hope, Tate and Kai of Aurora, SD, Levi and Natalie Silva of Brookings; two sisters Linda (Dan) McGlothlen of Piedmont, SD; Cathy Miller of Brookings; her parents Al and Alice Lunden of Brookings; and her mother-in-law Maurine Heiser of Atlanta, GA; and many other relatives.

Cindy died on Monday, August 31, 2009, in Brookings surrounded by her loving family.