Category Archives: Local

By Dan Bechtold, Editor

Love. Patience. Respect. These are the three guiding principals that have helped Bill and Evelynne Moses through 70 years of marriage.

The Winner couple will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary on Sunday, May 21, with an open house at the Winner Methodist Church from 2-4 p.m. The public and all of their friends are invited to attend to wish this Winner couple a happy anniversary.

The actual anniversary is on May 20 but due to Winner and Gregory High School graduations on that date, they moved their celebration to Sunday.

They were married one year from the date of their high school graduation in 1946.

The couple were married on May 20, 1947, at the old Methodist Church. Rev. D.W. Nankivel officiated at the ceremony. Attendants were Bill’s brother, Bob and Evelynne’s sister, Phyllis.

Bill has lived his entire life in Winner and came from a family of 10 children—5 boys and 5 girls.

Evelynne Wickstrom was raised in Hamill and when she entered her freshman year of high school the family moved to Winner.

Though they were in the same high school class, their first date was not until baccalaureate and their second date was on graduation.

Their love for each other grew and in December of 1946 Bill gave his sweetheart an engagement ring and asked her to marry him. Evelynne said “yes.”

The first two months the newlyweds lived with her parents.

Bill continued to work at the Coop, a job he started in high school. In 1948, Bill went to work for Walt Schramm at Schramm Furniture and remained there for 45 ½ years. In 1993, Bill retired but for several years would come in to help when asked.

Evelynne had several jobs. She worked as a bookkeeper for Paul Blomstrom. Then, she stayed at home to raise her children and did not go back to work until her youngest, Debbie was in grade school. She went back to work for Blomstrom.

From 1969-1977 she worked at Farmers State Bank and then worked as a secretary at the Methodist church for nine years. When she was 62, Evelynne retired.

The couple have lived in their same house on 8th street for 55 years. They moved into the home in 1961. At first they rented for six years and then bought the home. They are proud of the fact they are still able to live in their own home.

They did not have a big celebration for their 50th or 60th wedding anniversaries so their kids felt it was time to celebrate with an open house on their 70th anniversary.

Bill said on their 50th wedding anniversary they went on a two week trip to the East Coast and on their 60th anniversary they went to Kansas City for the weekend.

When asked what has been the key to their long marriage they were quick to add it is love, patience and respect.

They added when problems arose they worked things out and that made their love that much stronger.

“We never had a lot of problems,” said Evelynne. She added their kids were good and the joy of their life.

The Moses have three grown children: Steve and wife, Cathy, Ft. Pierre; Sally Miller and husband, Nels of Gregory and Debbie Ochsner and husband, Scott of St. Paul, Minn. The couple have nine grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.

From that very first date at baccalaureate to now, you can see in this couple that their love for each other has never wavered.

By Dan Bechtold, Editor

Greg Sherman told the Colome High School graduates he was honored and humbled to be asked to be the commencement speaker.  Sherman retired at the end of this school year after teaching in Colome for 43 years.
He explained graduation from high school is a big deal, it is an important milestone in a student’s life.

He said this group of seniors is a talented group and that came through during the senior experience display night. “It was incredible,” he said.

Sherman said this is a strong academic class as nine of the members took the ACT test. The average test score in South Dakota is 21 and the Colome average was 23, two points higher than the state average.  Two of the seniors had a score of 29.

Sherman was impressed that eight seniors were graduating with honor.

The teacher noted that the class is also very athletic and have set some track records in the shot put, discus and 400 relay.  He noted the Colome boys basketball team won the Jones County Tournament, only the second time is school history.  Also, the Colome football team won the Class 9B state championship.  And the Winner/Colome club baseball team won the state title last year.

Sherman mixed in some humorous stories of students.

Sherman said this class is prepared for life after high school. “All have worked hard to be successful in life,” he said.

Honored as valedictorians were a tie between Adrianna Larson and Isaac Kortan.

There will be 18 students who will graduate from Colome High School on Saturday, May 13.

The commencement will start at 7 p.m. in the Colome gym.

The graduation speaker will be Greg Sherman, government teacher, who is retiring this year.

The honor students are: Isaac Kortan, Adrianna Larson, Jordan Shippy, Wiley Health, Callie Heath, Will Cahoy, Holden Thieman and Darcy Maier.

Kortan and Larson will be the co-valedictorians.

The welcome will be given by Wiley Heath and Megan Seegers. The farewill be presented by Darcy Maier and Adrianna Larson.

The Colome band will perform.

Scholarships will be presented.

The junior escorts are Zane Rohde, Caleb Vanderbark, Jeremiah Yeaman and Kaylee Bolton.

The sophomore ushers are: Alexa McKenze, Jaclyn Laprath, Abby Pechota and Hanna Rowe.

The freshman program distributors are Eli Kortan, Haley Krumpus, Julianna Larson and Jacob Beckers.

This year there will be 16 eighth grade graduates.
The class colors are green, silver and white.

The class flower is the daisy.

The class motto is: “Follow your dreams but always know the road that leads you home.”

The local development corporation is giving each graduate from Winner High School and Colome High School a mailbox for graduation.

Included will be letter inviting then back home someday to live and have a career.

Businesses have given pens, post it notes, magnetic clips and many other items that are inside each mail box.
There are 72 graduates between Winner and Colome.

The Colome graduation is May 13 and Winner High School graduation is May 20.

The triple crown rodeo was held in White River, Winner and Burke this weekend.

Wiley Heath of Colome was boys all around n Winner and Karissa Rayhill of Martin was the girls all around.

Gavin Myers of Winner will graduate from Georgetown University on May 20.

He will receive a bachelor of arts degree in sociology and film and media studies.

He is the only student from the Class of 2017 that is from South Dakota. There are estimated 1,100 graduates from all 50 states and 69 countries.

“It has been an honor to represent South Dakota and Winner at one of the top 20 universities in the country,” said Myers.

Kristin Maier of Witten, graduated with a degree in elementary education from Northern State University on May 6. She graduated cum laude.

Area students graduated from the University of South Dakota on May 6.

The graduates include: Tracy Routh, Colome, bachelor of science, communication sciences and disorders; Logan Welker, Hamill, bachelor of arts in psychology and Spanish; Nolan Welker, Hamill, bachelor of business administration, management; Michelle Novak, Winner, bachelor of science in communication sciences and disorder; Keely Krolikowski, Winner, doctor of medicine; Tanae Kartak, Winner, doctor of occupational therapy; Renee Burnham, Winner, doctor of physical therapy.

The law enforcement torch run for South Dakota Special Olympics will pass through Winner on May 16. The event will start at 2:45 p.m. at the city park on West 5th St. From 5th St the group will walk to South County Road and then go to Third Street and back to the park.

The public is invited to participate.

“We are very excited to bring the torch run through Winner on the way to the state Special Olympics summer games in Spearfish,” said Todd Bradwisch, vice president, law enforcement torch run.

Winner Mayor Frank Finney signed a proclamation declaring May 15-19 as law enforcement torch run for Special Olympics week.

The Special Olympics program is a year round athletic competition in which over 2,000 individuals with disabilities from South Dakota compete in various events.

In 2016, the torch run and other fund raising events raised over $574,000 for Special Olympics in South Dakota.
The core group of runners will finish at the games opening ceremony in Spearfish on May 18.

PIERRE – The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) announced today that the Town of Colome public water system and the system’s operation specialists have been awarded a Drinking Water Certificate of Achievement Award.

“We cannot live without water; it is just that simple,” said DENR Secretary Steve Pirner. “With these awards, DENR salutes the best-of-the-best drinking water systems and operation specialists who deliver safe water 24 hours-a-day to their customers and successfully met all the of the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act last year.”

The system’s operation specialist was Dave Witt.

To qualify for the Drinking Water Certificate of Achievement Award, public water systems and their system operations specialists had to meet all of the following requirements for 2016:

• compliance monitoring and reporting,
• drinking water standards, and
• certification requirements.

Chase Hrabanek of Colome is a new member of the American Angus Association.

The American Angus Association, with more than 25,000 active and junior members, is the largest beef breed association in the world. Its computerized records include detailed information on over 18 million registered Angus.

The 3rd annual Billy Bolander Memorial fishing tournament was held on April 29th at Roosevelt Lake with twelve teams competeing. The boats were launched and after a minute of silence for Ol’ Bill the tournament began at 7 AM and ended at 2 PM. Bryce Hauf and Mark Rohde took first place with 11 pounds 11 ounces, Shane Stiehl and Eric Storms took second place with 9 pounds 4 ounces and Jim Williams and Harlan Folkers took third place with 8 pounds 9 ounces. Stiehl and Storms also won big bass and the odd fish categories.