Category Archives: News

Patrick Earl Brown was born Sept. 27, 1947 in Presho, SD to Vernon and Esther (Burnham) Brown. He grew up in the Wood area. He attended country school through the 8th grade, White River High School his freshman and sophomore years, and Wood High School his junior and senior years where he graduated in 1965. He attended Southern State College for a year.

Patrick enlisted in the U.S. Army in October 1967. He served in Vietnam from June 1968 to June 1969. He was in the 1st Squadron 11th Armored Calvary Regiment stationed at Bien Hoa.

Pat met his wife Diane Fisher in 1972. They were married on May 31, 1974, and to this union three children were born; Mike, Kip and Teddy.

After his tour in the U.S. Army he was employed by Gerald Moorehead as a carpenter, then went on to do carpenter work with his brother Dale. He was then employed by Whitley Central Distributing for 30 plus years. He finished out his last 8 years of employment with Kucera Electric.

Pat was an avid outdoorsman. He loved to go hunting, fishing, and camping with his family and friends.

Edward Charles Dreyer, born July 10th, 1951 to Kathleen and Harold Dreyer, was raised to be a proper Catholic boy. Unfortunately, it didn’t take.

He had four siblings, Barb Severin, Denny Kidwiler, Rob Dreyer, and Mike Dreyer. Ed was privileged to have eight happy days in his life – four marriages and four divorces. He proudly served his country in Vietnam, until his honorable discharge in 1974. While serving in Vietnam, he received a care package from his aunt Bonnie Dreyer every week. Shortly following his return, he married his first wife, Denise Davis, and fathered two children, Becky Hembrough and Joshua Dreyer.

Finding that married life suited him just fine, Edward went on to marry a second time to Jo Linda Gerhauser, and had his third child, Dakota Joe. Upon the dissolution of that marriage, Edward tried his hand at professional gambling for a while and trained horses in northern Nevada for approximately ten years. He finally returned to his hometown of Winner, South Dakota and worked for the family business, Dreyer Trucking, avoiding the DOT and driving away from the police at every opportunity. Depending on how you count, he then married his third or fourth wife, Shirley Whittaker.

After his final marriage, he began dating his last life partner, Lisa Faldalen, who dodged the bullet of being his fourth or fifth wife. Edward’s door was always open to friends and family. He didn’t always have a lot, but what he had, he was happy to share. In the last years of his life, he was very proud to attend his son Dakota’s college graduation and his marriage to Alana Dreyer.

A lifelong conservative, Edward enjoyed spirited debates with his liberal friends. When Kenny Weiland tried to put a yard sign supporting his Democrat brother in Ed’s yard, he told him if that sign went in his grass, Kenny would be dead to him. He took great pleasure in needling his liberal niece, Cheyenne Leigh, and his cousin, Cliffy Dreyer.

Edward passed peacefully in his sleep on March 20th, 2017.

Landon Scott Martin, son of Colleen Martin, was born June 9, 2005 at Winner, SD. He died of an accident on Sunday, March 19, 2017. Landon attained the age of 11 years, nine months and 11 days.

Landon was baptized by Pastor Phil Lint at the United Methodist Church in Wagner. He was a sixth grader at Wagner Community School. He loved school and was a very bright young man.

Landon will be remembered for his love of football, hunting, fishing and football cards. He loved working cattle with his Grandpa Butch, fishing with his “Grandpa” Bernie, hunting with his “Uncle” Joe and horseback riding Tripper while in Nebraska.

Elmer Isaac Reimer, our much loved father, grandfather, great-grandfather, pastor, and friend, passed away peacefully in his son’s home March 19, 2017. He was born in Drake, Saskatchewan, Canada, on May 18, 1922, the third of seven sons and one daughter born to Frank and Gertrude (Boese) Reimer.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Catharina, and brothers Alfred, Harry, Arlie, and Leslie. He is survived by brothers Johnny and Albert, sister Betty, son David (Marilyn), grandchildren Kristen (Sean) Fender and son Nathan; Gregory (Amber) and children Adrianna, Bree, and Cate; and Jeffrey (Jessica) and children Charlie, Lillian, Anna, and Elanor.

He came to faith in Christ during a revival in their church in Dalmeny, Saskatchewan, and was baptized at the age of 14.

The extreme drought of the thirties forced the family to move to Steinbach, Manitoba, to find work when Elmer was a teenager. He worked in a body shop, lumber camp, and as a mechanic in a John Deere dealership.

He met Catharina (Tina) Peters at the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren church in Steinbach. They were married September 26, 1943. Their son, David, was born April 2, 1945.

Elmer felt called to the ministry and the family moved to Omaha, NE, where he enrolled at Grace Bible Institute. Within a few years, he had served as a summer pastor in Michigan and then left school to become the pastor of the EMB church in Jansen, NE. He served there for several years before returning to school in Omaha. In 1957 he moved to South Dakota to pastor the Kingsburg Community Church for several years before accepting the pastorate of the Carter Gospel Fellowship, a rural church near Winner, SD.

After 28 years at Carter, he and Tina moved to Newton in 1991, and Elmer pastored the First Mennonite Church of Burns, KS, for 12 ½ years.

Elmer was heavily involved in evangelistic meetings in churches throughout the Midwest and Canada, and in youth work primarily through Bible camps. Thousands of young people knew and loved him as ‘Uncle Elmer.’

In 2004, at the age of 82, he resigned the pastorate and took on the project of raising missionary support for the task of translating and recording into Low German the entire collection of J. Vernon McGee’s Thru the Bible radio teaching series, a five-year daily broadcast consisting of 1,297 individual half-hour programs of study from Genesis to Revelation. He became the world-wide Low German voice of the Thru the Bible series, one of more than a hundred languages into which the program has been translated and recorded. The Low German programs are currently being broadcast regularly to thousands of Low German-speaking Mennonites in Mexico, South America, Northern Germany, and Canada. He also translated the New Testament and portions of the Old Testament into Low German. His ministry impact will continue long into the future.

After completing the translation projects in 2010, he taught Sunday School at Grace Community Church until December of 2015, completing 75 years of continuous ministry. His godly spirit and faithful ministry will be greatly missed by his family and a host of people who have known and loved him.

Betty was born Sept. 23, 1936, in Winner, SD, to George and Velma (Hisehorte) Farley, the fourth oldest of seven children. She attended grade school at Southwest Hart Country School in Weaver Township. She worked at Joe’s Cafe in Winner for many years where she met her husband Frank C. Toman. Frank and Betty were united in marriage in 1954 and were blessed with three children: Melvin, Tom and Pamela.

After being united in marriage to Frank, she moved to the Toman farm north of Carter, SD, where she lived her entire adult life. Her time on the farm was spent caring for her family, helping around the farm when needed, and raising countless numbers of chickens. She was especially proud of her involvement with the family hog raising operation. She was an incredible cook and baker, and if anyone ever left her house hungry, it was definitely his own fault. In addition to all of her involvement with the family farm, she spent many years as the treasurer of the Tripp County Progressive Township. Some of her most treasured moments on the farm were caring for her flower gardens and visits with her many friends. She enjoyed meeting in person for coffee and chatting on the phone to keep in touch with all of her wonderful neighbors to find out the latest news.

Outside of the farm, Betty had many activities that she truly loved. She spent many years bowling in Winner with some of her dearest friends, and the trips to bowling tournaments – wherever they might be held – were highly anticipated events. However, the activity that she was the most proud of was being a charter member of the Treadle Trippers Club. As a charter member, her involvement with the club lasted over 50 years, and she developed and maintained friendships that lasted a lifetime. The members of the club were very special people in her life.

Richard (Dick) L Lyons was born Sept. 24, 1924 to Dennis and Beatrice Lyons on the homestead near Keyapaha, S. D. He was one of seven children, three brothers and three sisters. He grew up on the family homestead and attended Beaver Creek School. When he entered high school he stayed with his Uncle Bob and Aunt Marian in Wagner, S. D. Upon graduation he returned home to help his father on the ranch.

On October 29, 1951 he married Bernice Wade. They remained on the ranch where they raised five children. Dick was an avid horseman and taught all his children to ride by the age of six. In the summer evenings, after a long days work, he would help his children train their horses or play baseball with them.

The ranch was a busy place with all the relatives that came to visit. Dick taught his nieces and nephews to ride a horse. They also got their first driving lessons behind the wheel of the pickup driving through the pasture. Later it was the grandkids that came to enjoy the ranch and get their horseback riding and driving lessons from Grandpa. Along with the lessons they were entertained by his sense of humor and Irish wit.

After retirement Dick and Bernice spent the winter months traveling to visit their children. In 2013 they moved to Golden Prairie Manor in Winner S. D. and resided there until his death.

Bud, son of Paul and Irene Johnson, was born on June 7, 1927 in his Grandma McEachrans’s house south of Hamill.

He graduated from Winner High School in 1944. He joined the Hamill Lutheran Church as a young man.
In the 1950’s, he joined the South Dakota National Guard and served in Alaska as a cook. After the Guards, Bud joined his father on the farm/ranch south of Hamill, where he lived until moving to the Elder Inn in 2015 due to lung cancer.

Bud was an active member of Zion Lutheran Church in Hamill, SD.

Bud was a faithful son, brother, and the adored uncle to numerous nieces and nephews.