Andrea Grace Lillehaug, age 84, passed away at her home in Mitchell SD unexpectedly on Feb. 11, 2025. Her memorial service will be at 10:30 AM, Apr. 26, 2025, at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Wessington Springs SD. Interment of her ashes will be at Solberg Cemetery, next to her parents.

Andrea was born Aug. 20, 1940, to her parents, Julius and Pearl Lillehaug, in Mitchell.  She grew up on their farm in rural Jerauld Co. 5 mi south of Lane SD.  She attended grade school in a one-room school house approx. 1 1/2 mi from her home, with older sister Judy.  They walked to school, with mother giving them each a baked potato for lunch, and as a hand warmer for the trek in the winter cold. Firesteel Creek lay between home and their school, with wintertime allowing them a shortcut across their pastures over the frozen creek.

During her teen years she served as the church pianist at the former Solberg Lutheran Church, located across the road from their farm home.

She attended Wessington Springs High School, graduating in 1958.  Immediately after, she attended Nettleton Business College in Sioux Falls SD, earning a secretarial certificate.

Soon after, she moved to Long Beach CA where her sister Dorothy was living.  She met a man there by the name of Alan Hester and they married in Long Beach on Dec. 24, 1960.  To this marriage was born her only child, Alan.  They divorced in July of 1963.

As a single mother Andrea continued to work secretarial jobs in Long Beach until she met a Navy sailor stationed at the shipyard there, Edward Pretre.  He was from Bayonne NJ, where they married Aug. 24, 1968, and made their home together until Mar. 1971 when they divorced.

Returning to Long Beach, Andrea and her son made their home there again where she worked secretarial jobs in law offices.

In 1976, Andrea and her son moved to Hartford SD during his high school years, where she worked for law offices in Sioux Falls SD, as well as night shifts as a cocktail waitress.

Money was tight, and in June 1980, she moved to Long Beach again where the secretarial pay was better for women.  Upon her return to Long Beach, she took classes to earn her Paralegal certificate, allowing her to do legal work in California.  In 1982, she passed the Baby Bar exam, allowing her to enter law school without an undergraduate degree.  She attended Western State University and earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence in June of 1987 at age 47, whereupon she started a new life as an attorney specializing in probate, trusts, and conservatorships.

She married Mac MacMillan on June 14, 2008, in a small ceremony in the Black Hills of South Dakota, near where she owned a cabin.  They divorced in Nov. 2014.

Andrea retired in 2015 at age 75, closing her law practice in Long Beach and relocating to Mitchell in July to be near her son and family.

Leaving as survivor is her only child Alan (Hester II) Pretre, and wife Nancy of Mitchell, 3 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren.  She was preceded in death by her parents Julius and Pearl (McCloud Alexander) Lillehaug, siblings Rodney Alexander, Marge (Alexander) Fraisure, Dorothy (Alexander) Butler, and Judy (Lillehaug) Koens, and almost all of her first cousins.