Norris EricksonNorris Erickson was born

to first generation NorwegianLutherans on the family farmwest of Mt.Vernon, SDMarch 25, 1925— one of fivechildren. In1938 the Erick-sons moved toa farm north-east of Vermil-lion. Hegraduatedfrom University High School in1943 and began studies at theUniversity of South Dakotauntil being called into the U.S.Army in 1945.

After returning from serv-ing his country in Frankfurt,Germany in 1947, he marriedhis high school sweetheart,Cleo Jean Collar. He pickedup where he left off at theUniversity of South Dakota,but in 1949 used the G.I. Billto enroll at the University ofColorado at Boulder. Norrisearned his degree in Mechan-ical Engineering in 1951 andbegan his career for StandardOil Company in Kansas City,MO (and spent a VERY coldwinter building an oil refineryin Mandan, ND that stillstands on the frozen tundra).

While he and Cleo werevisiting his older brother inLos Angeles in 1957, he filledout a job application atHughes Aircraft — interestedin the budding aerospace in-dustry. He was hired immedi-ately and he and Cleo wereoff to sunny California. In thenext few years, he designedthe “T.O.W.” anti-tank missilesystem (still in use aroundthe world) and the first lunarlander, Surveyor I, that pre-ceded the Apollo astronautsto the moon. (A Surveyor Ireplica hangs in the Smith-sonian Air & Space Museumin Washington, DC today.)

But by 1964, Norris andCleo’s two children had ar-rived and it was decided thatSouth Dakota was a better

place to raise kids than L.A.The family moved back toVermillion where he becameAssociate Vice President ofthe University of SouthDakota, in charge of all cam-pus facilities (including con-struction of the Dakota Domeand the current law school).He retired in 1987.

Norris, like so many of hisgeneration, was a child of theGreat Depression. As a result,his hobbies were simple andpractical. He liked woodworking and had a largewood working shop in hishome. When not remodelingand tending to his homesover the years, he made sim-ple wooden gifts for familyand friends. And he never gotover his Depression-era beliefthat ice cubes were wasteful.

Norris passed away De-cember 2 at the Sanford Ver-million Care Center.

He was preceded in deathby his parents Thorvald andEllen Erickson, infant sisterEleanor, brothers Orwin andHarold Dean, and sisterMarlys (Sidney Haugum). Heis survived by his wife of 66years, Cleo; a son Paul; adaughter Susan (RomneyJones) and two grandchildrenthat he watched enter collegewith pride — Dominick and

Claire Jones — and numerousnephews and nieces.

A prayer and remem-brance service will be heldWednesday, December 4 at7:00 p.m. at the Hansen Fu-neral Home in Vermillion. Fu-neral services will beconducted at Trinity LutheranChurch in Vermillion at 10:00a.m. Thursday, December 5.Burial will be in Bluff ViewCemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the fam-ily requests that any memori-als be directed to the TrinityLutheran Church radio broad-casts — one of the programshe pioneered as president ofthe congregation in the 1970s.

Norris’ family would like toextend a special word ofthanks to the dedicated andexceptionally kind nurses, cer-tified nursing assistants, din-ing hall workers andcustodians of the Sanford Ver-million Care Center whowatched over Norris day andnight the last years of his life.He spoke fondly of them (ex-cept on bath day) and theyembraced him and indulgedhis belief near the end thatchocolate was a food group.

Visit hansenfuneral-home.com.

Yankton Press & Dakotan

December 3, 2013

Raymond HirockeRaymond Joseph Hirocke,

65, formerly of Elk Point, SouthDakota passed away on Novem-ber 23, 2013 in Hyannis, Massa-chusetts.

There will be small familyprayer service in Vermillion athis sister Rose’s place on De-cember 6, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. Hiswife, Shirley will receive hisashes in his home town, Hyan-nis, MA.

Raymond was born October18, 1948 in Sioux City, Iowa.Growing up he attended schoolin Elk Point. He served in theNavy. After that he lived in thestate., Washington, Nebraska,and Massachusetts till hisdeath.

Survivors include his wifeShirley, sisters, Nadine Burow ofYankton, SD, JoAnn Mentzer ofPonca, NE, Rose Hirocke of Ver-million, and Ella Hirocke ofGayville, SD; brother Michael Hi-rocke of Hyannis, MA.; and threegenerations of nieces andnephews.

He was preceded in death byhis parents Joseph C. Hirocke,Sr. and Helen I (Oakie) Hirocke;brothers Clifford, Leslie, JosephC Hirocke, Jr. and Gordan HornEagle; sisters, Debi (Hirocke)Buschelman and Delores “Tiny”Drapeau; and a nephew, Mark.

Yankton Press & Dakotan

December 3, 2013

Tuesday, 12.3.13ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net

NEWSROOM: News@yankton.net PRESS DAKOTAN P A G E 3

the region

O B I T UA R I E S

IN REMEMBRANCE

W INTZ & R AY FUNERAL HOME and Cremation Service, Inc. 605-665-3644

W INTZ FUNERAL HOME INC.

Hartington, Coleridge, Crofton 402-254-6547 www.wintzrayfuneralhome.com

Betty Ann Harold 10:00 AM, Tuesday

Holy Family (Sacred Heart) Catholic Church Wynot

2216 Broadway, Yankton

�������������� �������������������

20 th Annual Christmas Coffee & Bake Sale Coffee & Bake Sale

1:00 p.m. - Shop for wonderful baked goodies, snacks, canned goods, pies, cakes, cookies, candy, jams, kuchen & kolaches.

3:00 p.m. - Christmas carols in the Sanctuary. Ted Powell on the 45-rank organ. Come to listen and sing!

Every guest takes home a Christmas ornament!

Everyone welcome!

Saturday, Dec. 7th, 2 0 1 3 United Church of Christ (Congregational)

5th & Walnut • Yankton, SD Homeade Pie & Coffee Served

Restaurant Equipment SaleFriday Dec. 6th

10am - 4pm

EVERYTHING MUST GO!ALL PRICES NEGOTIABLE

Betty HaroldBetty Ann Harold, age 57 of

Hartington, Nebraska died onSaturday, November 30, 2013 ather residence

Mass of Christian Burial willbe on Tuesday, December 3,2013 at 10:30 a.m. at the HolyFamily (Sacred Heart) CatholicChurch in Wynot, Nebraskawith the Rev. Eric Olsen offici-ating. Burial will be at theParagon Cemetery, rural Hart-ington.

Visitation will be on Mon-day, at church, from 5-8:00 p.m.with a Vigil Service at 7:00 p.m.Visitation will continue onTuesday at church one hourprior to services.

Arrangements are underthe direction of the Wintz Fu-neral Home in Hartington.

Pallbearers will be JimKjeldgaard, Steve Bowman,Woody Woodcock, NorbertPinkelman, Steve Wieseler, and

Jim Eskins.Honorary

pallbearers willbe Michelleand BobHeimes, Kristiand DavePease, Jeff andShannonBirger, andAmy and Mike

Larsen.Betty Ann was born on Feb-

ruary 1, 1956 in Yankton, SD toArt and Marie (Leise) Vorn-hagen. Betty grew up in the St.James area and graduated fromWynot High School in 1974. Shemarried Gary B. Harold on May18, 1974 in St. James, NE. To-gether they had two children,Jeremy Joseph and JosephTanner. In 1984 Betty and Garybought the farm they are livingon now. They became Organicfarmers shortly after theystarted farming and that be-came their life and livelihood.

Betty’s greatest love next toher husband and children washer horses, which she wasborn and raised on. She foundstrength, love and compassionfrom her horses. She alwayssaid that one of the greatestthings about her horses wasthey were always glad to seeher and they were never judg-mental. Betty loved music,photography, gardening, fish-ing and all sorts of outside ac-tivities. She especially lovedhunting with her husband andsons and nephew Jeff Birgerand his two boys, Jeffrey andSam. She enjoyed watching andsupporting her sons and theirteammates in all sportingevents. Despite her health is-sues she found the strength tosupport the Wynot boy’s bas-ketball team when they wonthe State Championship in2013 and to the semifinals infootball in 2013.

Betty is survived by her

husband, Gary of Hartington,NE; two sons Jeremy and fiancéJen Miller of St. Helena, NE,Joseph of Hartington; sisterMary Kay and husband MelvinBirger of Yankton, SD; brotherGary and wife Colleen Vorn-hagen of Yankton, SD; sisterCheryl and husband GordonSchulte of Yankton, SD; manynieces and nephews and greatnieces and nephews.

She was preceded in deathby her parents and brotherLarry Vornhagen.

Yankton Press & Dakotan

December 3, 2013

Harold

Destiny SuingDestiny Suing, age 18, of

Yankton, SD died Saturday, No-vember 30, 2013 at Mercy Med-ical Center, Sioux City, IA frominjuries sustained in an auto-mobile accident earlier in theweek.

Funeral services will be10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Decem-ber 4, 2013 at the UnitedChurch of Christ (Congrega-tional), Yankton, with Rev. RickJensen and Rev. Paul M. Op-sahl officiating. Burial will be inthe Yankton Cemetery, Yank-ton, SD.

Visitations will begin at 5:00p.m. Tuesday, at the Opsahl-Kostel Funeral Home & Crema-tory, Yankton, with a Scriptureservice at 7:00 p.m. Visitationswill resume one hour prior tothe service at the church.

Pallbearers are: ChadSmith, James Payton, BobSwanson, Terry Pick, JD Mar-tinez, Bryce Lewis and JamesRye.

Destiny wasborn October20, 1995, inYankton, SouthDakota toMelanie(French)Tweedy. Des-tiny grew up inUtica, SD wereshe attended

Yankton Public Schools. Shelater moved to Crofton, NEwhere she attended schoolthere until moving to Rock-port, TX where she attendedhigh school and then obtainedher GED. She worked at theBeach Lodge in Port Aransas,TX. Destiny moved back toYankton in August of 2013where she lived with her AuntMelisa. She worked at Arbysand JC Penney for a short time.

Destiny was baptized in theUnited Church of Christ, Yank-ton, SD. As a child, Destinyloved spending time stormwatching with her Grandpa

French. She also spent a lot oftime hanging around the UticaFire Department where hermother and grandpa were fire-fighters. She also spent time at-tending Lions functions withher grandma and grandpaFrench. While living in Crofton,she belonged to FFA and had aspecial love for animals, espe-cially horses.

Destiny was a beautiful girlwho had a smile that couldlight up a room and a personal-ity that no one could walkaway from. She loved spendingtime with her family andfriends. Destiny’s greatest ac-complishment in life was hernine month old son, XadenBenjamin French who wasborn February 19, 2013. Shewas an amazing Mother!

Survivors include her son,Xaden Benjamin French ofYankton, SD; parents, Melanie(French) and BenjaminTweedy of Rockport, TX; sister,Faith Suing of Rockport, TX ;

step-brother, Dallas Mastersonof Nebraska; grandparents,Katherine French of Yankton,SD, Robert and Peggy Tweedyof Crofton, NE, and JeannieMasterson of Glendive, MN;special friends, Lori and Mar-vin Lockwood of Yankton, SDand Triton Suing of St. Helena,NE; and countless aunts, un-cles, cousins, extended familyand friends who loved herdearly.

She was preceded in deathby her grandfather, FreemanFrench and great-grandmother,Margaret Swensen.

The family wishes for me-morials to be directed to anyWells Fargo Bank, DestinySuing Benefit Account.

Yankton Press & Dakotan

December 3, 2013

Suing

Online condolences at: www.opsahl-kostelfuneralhome.com

started,” she said. “Wethought this would be a greatopportunity to keep goingwith that tradition.”

Later that evening, resi-dents will not only have thechance to witness an annualtradition — they’ll have anopportunity to join it for free.The Holiday Parade of Lightsand Vendor Fair will begin at5 p.m. with the fair, while theparade will begin at 6 p.m.

One of the organizers,Paul Lowrie of the GurneyRedevelopment Group, firstbecame involved with the pa-rade as a participant himself.

“One year I was decorat-ing and I had all theselights,” Lowrie said. “The pa-rade was going to be goingon so I threw a bunch oflights in, on and around thecar, threw a stuffed snowmanin the seat and out the sun-roof, and just entered the pa-rade.”

The parade has been runby the Gurney Redevelop-ment group for four yearsafter the city was reportedlyready to end the parade.

Lowrie said the key is forentrants to keep it simple.

“What we’re encouraging,more than anything, is not tomake this such a huge bur-den on people to do, butsomething that’s really funand easy,” he said. “Get your-self something like your caror your pickup and come outwith a creative way to throwa couple strings of lights on.”

Lowrie said this year’s pa-rade route will begin at theintersection of Levee andCapitol streets, going northon Capitol to Third St., wherethe parade will continuewest to Cedar St. where itwill continue south, endingat the base of the MeridianBridge for the lighting of thecommunity Christmas tree.Mount Marty College acap-pella group Smooth Benedic-tion will provide music at thetree before and after the offi-cial lighting.

Running in conjunctionwith the parade will be a ven-dor fair at Second and Capi-tol streets in the formerGurney retail location, run-ning from 5-9 p.m. Vendorswill also provide hot choco-late during the parade.

Prizes will be offered forparade entries. As of Mondaynight, around 14 participantshave signed up with 25-30 ex-pected.

He added the parade is agreat community building ex-ercise.

“Nothing like a crowd cre-ates the feeling that some-thing is festive and fun,”Lowrie said. “Last year at thetree, it looked like there wasgoing to be 50 people or lessand it soared to around 500.”

———To enter in the parade,

contact the Gurney Redevel-opment Group at 605-260-6870.

You can follow RobNielsen on Twitter at twit-ter.com/RobNielsenPandD/.Discuss this story atwww.yankton.net/

FridayFrom Page 1

There will be a “Remem-bering Pearl Harbor” event onSaturday, Dec. 7 at the Yank-ton Elks Lodge, located at 504W. 27th St. in Yankton. Thisevent is sponsored by theLewis and Clark Voiture 842 ofthe 40/8.

The event will begin at 5:30p.m. with social hour. A dinnerof roasted chicken, with sidesand drinks included, will be at6:30 p.m. The program startsat 7:30 p.m. with “In Memo-riam of Pearl Harbor,” com-ments by Jim DeBoer, followed

by the featured presentationof “The Sleeping Giant Awak-ens” by Prof. Roger Baron, Uni-versity of South Dakota Schoolof Law.

Dinner tickets may be pur-chased at the door (ElksLodge). An RSVP would be ap-preciated, if possible, to theElks at (605) 665-3333.

This event is open to thepublic. All are invited for a din-ner and presentation. Thereare ticket costs for either thepresentation or thedinner/presentation.

Pearl Harbor EventSet For Saturday

Norris