Lois Mae Polinder joined the choirs of her Heavenly Hosts and to be with her Lord and Savior on Friday, May 17, 2024. Lois was born Sept. 22, 1929 in Brooten, Minnesota to parents Raymond and Wilhelmina (TeBrake) Bouwman.
After graduating from Calvin College she began teaching music in Prinsburg, MN. Lois married Junior Kleinhuizen, and became a mother to four boys while continuing to teach on a part-time basis.
She and her husband moved to Lynden in 1968. Before long Lois began working at Lynden Christian Schools as a music teacher where she continue to teach until retirement in 1991.
A year or so after her husband‘s death from cancer she was asked if she would be interested in teaching music in Japan. And so for one year she worked in the International School in Singapore serving as a personal tutor to the handicap son of a pastor in a local Japanese church.
Lois also directed the choir in the pastor’s church in Japan, which she thoroughly enjoyed.
In 1987 Lois married Henry Polinder.
After Henry’s death in 1998, Lois continued to worship and serve at Third Christian Reformed Church.
Music was a very important part of Lois’s life; as a child, hearing her mother play the organ in church, at Calvin College, singing in the A Cappella choir, teaching children to enjoy music, directing choir, and leading the sing-along at the Christian Health Care Center are ways Lois had experience and shared the gift of music.
Lois and Junior raised four sons Scott Kleinhuizen (Dawn), Bob Kleinhuizen (deceased), Tim Kleinhuizen (Sherrie) and Terry Kleinhuizen (Carole); grandchildren Jason (Cindy), Leisha (Brandon), Ella Avery (Jack), Jenny, Jordan (Becki) Deagan, and Maddox.
With her marriage to Henry Polinder, she gained five more children: Sherm Polinder (Phyllis), Eleanor Dykstra (Bob), Ron Polinder (Colleen deceased, Judy), Marjorie Bos (Jim) and Karen Herrema (Mike); 14 grandchildren; 31 great-grandchildren, one deceased with one more on the way; and six great-great-grandchildren with one more on the way.
Memorials may be made to Lynden Christian Schools.
Lois’s private family graveside service is at Monumenta Cemetery on Friday, May 24, 2024 at 1:15 p.m. followed by a 2 p.m. memorial service at Third Christian Reformed Church, Lynden.
Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Gillies Funeral Home and Cremation Services.
