By Dan Bechtold
Editor
Students in the Colome Consolidated School District will return to classes on Monday, Aug. 14.
This year Colome is going to a four day school week and the school hours are Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3:32 p.m.
There will be a full day of classes on the first day and busses will run.
Betsy Rohde, who has been the business manager for the school district for seven years, will be the CEO of the district as well as the business manager. Samantha West will continue as the K-12 principal.
New this year will be begindergarten which will be all day. Students need to be age 5 by Sept. 1 to attend begindergarten.
There will also be a preschool from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Students need to be 4 by Sept. 1 to attend preschool. Tami Tate will be both the begindergarten and preschool teacher.
A back to school open house will be held Aug. 10 from 5-7 p.m.
New teachers this year will be Katie Richey, 4th grade; Paige Haukaas, 5th grade; Abbie Philmalee, ag teacher and FFA advisor; Lexie Stenson, elementary special education teacher.
Shelby Hrabanek will be the teacher in a combined first and second grade classroom. She was the elementary special education teacher last year.
New paraprofessionals will be Katie Hurley and Ivy Ekroth.
There will be an after school program Monday through Thursday from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Parents are to call the office to register. Korey Bertram will be the after school program teacher
The teacher in-service days will be Aug. 9-10.
Homecoming in Colome is set for Sept. 8.
Joyce E Kauer, 75 died Aug. 2, 2023 at Monument Health – Rapid City Hospital.
Joyce Elaine (Legge) Kauer was born June 25, 1947 at Winner, SD to George and Berniece (Storms) Legge.
In July of 1948 the family moved to Clearfield, SD, where her parents owned and operated Legge Garage. Joyce attended grade school at Clearfield School 1st through 8th grade. She graduated from Winner High School in 1967. Joyce worked at DECA at Grossenburg Implement during high school and continued to work their until May 1969. She married James L. Kauer on Oct. 5, 1968, in Winner SD.
In May 1969 she and Jim moved to Rapid City SD. Daughter Jennifer Jill was born on Aug. 1, 1974. Joyce was devoted to her family and friends. She enjoyed the outdoors, her numerous cats over the years and her garden. One of her favorite activities was her neighborhood birthday club where they enjoyed food and birthday sweets. She enjoyed collecting and selling her antiques and collectibles at her booth at Black Hills Antique Mall on 6th Street. She was an excellent cook and shared many recipes over the years and made the best Christmas Bread that was always a favorite at the holidays. Joyce was always up for a game of pitch, snatch or Mexican Train dominoes. Joyce loved to paint and shared her talent with the gifts of original oil painting as gifts to family and friends.
She is survived by her husband, James, daughter, Jennifer (Jason) Totten, grandchildren, Wyatt Totten, Kaitlyn Totten (Grady Martin), Cooper Totten. One great-grandson, Brooks Martin. Brothers, Kelly (Robin) Legge, Loren (Deb) Legge, niece Halley Legge and nephew Lander (Hannah) Legge as well as many extended family members.
She was preceded in death by her parents, sister Carol Geldert, brother-in-law, Robert Geldert, grandparents, George C. and Amelia Legge, Joseph and Cresenthia Storms.
A Christian Funeral Mass was celebrated on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Therese the Little Flower Catholic Church in Rapid City. She was laid to rest following the Mass at Mt. Calvary Cemetery at 1:30 p.m.
Please visit the online memorial for Joyce at: www.OsheimSchmidt.com.
Winner Schools will be having back to school activities soon for each building.
The high school orientation and computer checkout for students entering grades 9-12 will be held at the armory at 6 pm on Tuesday, Aug. 8. Each student must have a parent/guardian accompany them to complete the required paperwork. Following this meeting students will turn in the required paperwork and be allowed to pick up their computer to take home. Each student will need to verify insurance coverage or purchase the school insurance coverage for $50 prior to taking their computer home. Students who are unable to attend the orientation may attend an alternate orientation on Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 9 a.m. in room 100 of the high school.
The middle school orientation for students entering grades 6-8 will be held at the armory at 6 pm on Thursday, Aug. 10.
Students will receive their schedules and other information during these orientation meetings. After the orientation meeting in the armory students and parents will be able to visit their classrooms and check out their lockers.
The Winner Elementary school will host their meet the teacher night on Tuesday, Aug. 15 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Winner Elementary School.
Questions may be directed to the Middle/High School Office at 842-8125 or the Elementary School Office at 842-8170.
Gerald Witte – High School Principal
Brett Gardner – Middle School Principal
Brian Naasz – Elementary Principal
By Bosten Morehart
Staff writer
August Summer Nights in Colome will be held on Aug. 11, on Main Street and will be Hawaiian themed.
The Summer Nights in Colome will be filled with fun events for everyone young and old and is one of the summer events of the Winner Area Chamber of Commerce.
It will run from 6 pm to 10 pm with free entry for all.
There are many games and activities for all to participate in while the event is going on.
There will be beach sand volleyball as part of the Hawaiian theme along with a Hawaiian themed photo booth.
Face painting, palm tree bouncy house, various limbo games will also be going on.
Vendors for food and drinks are going to be available during the event.
There is going to be a best dressed award given out for the Hawaiian theme.
The entertainment will be the Kenaston Family band providing music entertainment for those who attend.
The sponsors for this Summer Nights are the Frontier Bar, the Dougherty Cattle Company, The Lodge at Bolton Ranch.
The grand champion of the BBQ pit row in Winner went to Checkered BBQ. They were also first place winners in pork.
Second place in the grand champion bracket went to Platte Locker and third to Porkwana BBQ.
Winner Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored the barbeque which featured 16 teams. The teams were set up on Main Street.
Results include:
Ribs—Knee Deep BBQ, 1st; Platte Locker, 2nd and J Squared Smoking Co., 3rd.
Pork results include:
Checkered BBQ, 1st; Smoked Encounters of the Third Swine, 2nd and KD’s BBQ, 3rd
Brisket results:
Platte Locker, 1st; Checkered BBQ, 2nd and R. J. Bones, 3rd
In the sides, first place went Roll N Smoke with Platte Locker, 2nd and Dog Ear Lake Smokers, 3rd.
There was a BBQ contest for youth to try their hand at cooking hamburgers. In the 10-12 division the winners were Alli Ollerich, Braxtyn Olson and Ani Duffy.
Winners in the 9 and under division were Coleton Vogt, Ryker Eschenbaum amd Presley Goodell.
A bean bag tournament was held in the afternoon with 24 teams competing.
The winners of the $1,000 first prize were Ivan and Samantha Foote.
A car show was also a part of the fun activities. The show as sponsored by Frontier Motors.
Entertainment was provided by three bands—VT Rockin Country, Savanna Chestnut and Luke Mills and the Highway Drifters.
There were lots of volunteers who provided help to make this event possible and run smoothly.
The attraction of food, cars and music drew a huge crowd to Main Street.
Marlene Kay (Gerdes) Kerner, 71, of Burke, SD passed away on July 18, 2023 in Burke, SD.
She was born on April 27, 1952 to John and Darline (Powers) Gerdes in Mitchell, SD.
Growing up, Marlene’s family moved around a lot because of her dad’s work as a truck driver for a construction company. The family would set up camp at each new road construction site and Marlene and her siblings would attend the local schools near the construction camps. Marlene often talked about how she didn’t mind the moving, except for when they attended a small school where her and her little brother (only 13 months younger than her) were in the same class.
Marlene didn’t say her first words until she was 2.5 years old and then suddenly one day as she was looking out the window, she said “there goes my daddy in his truck.” As her mother and everyone who knew her said, “and she hasn’t stopped talking since.” Marlene was known for being a “talker.” She never met a stranger she didn’t like and could carry on a conversation with anyone. Once on a family vacation to Six Flags, Marlene struck up a conversation with her roller coaster seatmate and afterwards commented that the young man wasn’t much of a conversationalist. That evening at the hotel pool, she was surprised to see his face on a souvenir t-shirt. Marlene said to the young lady wearing the t-shirt, “I was just on a roller coaster with that kid today.” The young lady, exclaimed, “you were on a roller coaster with NSYNC!”
Her mother, Darline Gerdes, ran a bakery out of her home and Marlene was her mom’s right hand baking assistant, instilling a love for baking that she kept throughout her life. She happily volunteered to deliver long johns to local customers for a quarter tip, so she could go to Mrs. Lunn’s candy store to buy nickel black cherry soda and penny candy.
In 1960, her family made their permanent home in Kimball, SD where Marlene graduated from Kimball High School in 1970. During high school and college, she worked as a waitress at Chef Rudy’s Café at Skelly’s Midway Truck-Stop in Kimball, SD to pay her way through college. After high school, she attended the University of South Dakota in Springfield majoring in elementary education and student teaching at the Chamberlain Indian school, planning to be a spinster schoolteacher.
However, that all changed in 1973, while at a rodeo dance in Chamberlain, SD. Her friend Judene Holan asked her to hold her drink so she could go out on the dance floor. Not thrilled to be standing next to the bar alone holding two drinks, Marlene agreed. That gave the otherwise introverted Richard Kerner who was in Chamberlain for guard duty, the chance he needed. He walked up to Marlene and said, “do you always drink two fisted?” That was the beginning of 49 years together and Richard and Marlene where married 9 months later on May 10, 1974 in the same church were Marlene’s parents were married, Saint Margaret’s Catholic Church in Kimball, SD.
The two built their life together on a ranch south of Burke where they lived and raised their three children, Steve, Anna and David until moving to town in 2009. On the ranch, Marlene was known for her delicious cooking which usually included some variation of home raised beef and potatoes. Marlene made sure that anyone who visited or worked on the ranch, never went hungry. She was constantly cooking whether it was bacon and eggs for breakfast or lunches for moving cattle and taking to the field. She always had a large garden and canned the best beets and dill pickles. There was always boiling coffee on the stove, even though she was never a coffee drinker herself.
Much to Richard’s chagrin, she decorated the house for each holiday, especially Christmas and always made sure everyone got a present.
Marlene was known for her pumpkin, cherry, apple and rhubarb pies which she brought to every family holiday gathering. She was a skilled donut and cake maker and decorator and made cutout and tiered cakes for all her family’s special occasions, including making her own wedding cake, and three tiered cakes for her parents 40th wedding anniversary and her daughter Anna’s high school graduation.
Marlene and Richard enjoyed visiting their daughter Anna all over the world, including taking the greyhound bus to Washington D.C., the Amtrak train to Niagara Falls, Boston, Sacramento, California and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. They also visited Anna in London twice which included a tour of Europe; visiting the beaches of Normandy, riding the train through the Alps, dining in a rotating restaurant in Berlin, Germany and going on a Gondola ride with her future son-in-law, Dan in Venice.
Marlene and Richard had a tradition of taking family vacations once a year, which they continued with their grandchildren once they were old enough to travel. These trips included taking their oldest granddaughter Mindy to Washington, D.C. and Yellowstone, several trips to the Black Hills, taking the train to Denver, Adventureland in Iowa and meeting up with Marlene’s sister Rosemary and her grandchildren for swim weekends. In 2014, they took their granddaughter Macie to Sweden, Denmark and the Fjords of Norway.
Marlene also enjoyed trips to the casino until her health no longer allowed her to go. Her bubbly personality, infectious laugh and good luck made her well known to other players and the casino staff, many of whom became good friends. She loved to share the story of her winning two cars and true to Marlene’s generous spirit, she gave the first one to her granddaughter Mindy. Her claim to fame was that Ft. Randal Casino filmed her handing over the keys to Mindy and made a television commercial from the footage.
Marlene constantly worried about others and family was everything to her. She always wanted to make sure everyone around her was taken care of and of course fed, especially her precious David who meant the world to her.
She is survived by her husband of 49 years, Richard Kerner; three children, Steve Kerner and wife Julie of Burke, SD, her daughter Anna Kerner Andersson and husband Dan of Burke, SD and her son David Kerner of Winner, SD; a brother, John Gerdes and wife Maureen of Kimball, SD; and 9 grandchildren, Mindy (Jared) Bolling, Austin (Cheyanne) Kerner, Macie (Wes) York, Ava Kerner, Mattie Kerner, Sophie Kerner Andersson, Elizabeth Kerner Andersson, Anna Christina Kerner Andersson and Richard Kerner Andersson and 3 great grandchildren, Emerson and Micah Bolling and Waylon York.
She is preceded in death by her parents, John and Darline (Powers) Gerdes, and her sister Rosemary Rasmussen. Funeral services for Marlene Kerner, age 71, of Burke, SD, were held on Friday, July 28, 2023 at 10:30 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Burke, SD. Burial was in the Graceland Cemetery, Burke.
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