Connie Jo Holst (Bradfield), 80, of Rochester, Minnesota, passed away on January 7, 2025, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Born in 1944 in Kadoka, South Dakota, to Byron and Dorothy Bradfield, Connie was the youngest of five. She grew up on the prairie with her siblings—Ruby, Pat, Joy, and Dale.
In 1963, she met her life’s companion, Gerald “Jerry” Holst in Kadoka. They married and moved to Rochester, where Jerry worked for IBM and Connie worked at Sears before later joining Mayo Clinic. Together, they raised two daughters and were founding and active members of Community Presbyterian Church.
Connie loved gardening, collecting rocks—especially the unremarkable ones—a good cup of tea, and making things with care and intention. She was a skilled seamstress who stitched homemade Halloween costumes for her grandchildren and also spent many happy hours at the pottery wheel learning ceramics. Time spent with her siblings, children, and grandchildren was where she felt most at home.
She was steady, stubborn, funny and kind.
Connie is survived by her daughters, Daphne and Darcie; and her grandchildren, Cheyenne, Garret, Ethan, and Gabe. She was preceded in death by her parents, her siblings, and her beloved Jerry, the great love of her life—though she’d be the first to say Robert Redford was a close second.
She is deeply missed.
A celebration of Connie’s life will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 7, at Community Presbyterian Church in Rochester. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Alzheimer’s research—or simply take a cup of tea out to the garden and think of her.
