Gerald (Jerry) D. Cameron, 74, died Sunday, February 21, 2010 at Avera McKennan in Sioux Falls after a long battle with his health. He was born March 12, 1935 to Marion Dagmar Boysen and Jonathon Cole Cameron. Gerald was raised in Wessington Springs, the youngest of four older brothers and one sister. He graduated from Wessington Springs High School in 1953. He attended Northern State College in Aberdeen following graduation.

Wessington Springs is happy to have such good people on the school faculty. The schools are full of outstanding teachers– and last year Charlotte Mohling was SD Teacher of the Year.  A week ago we had a story about Mary Gohring, a high school math teacher who was named SD Science Teacher of the Year.  And now THIS! We are presently working on a story for next week’s True Dakotan about a WSHS coach being named SD Coach of the Year. Wow! –Craig

Almeda E. Krueger 87 of Wessington Springs died Sunday morning February 21, 2010 at the Weskota Manor/Avera Health. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 PM Thursday February 25, 2010 at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church with Rev. Michael Bagnall officiating.

Interment will be in Prospect Hill Cemetery. Friends may call at the Basham Funeral Home Wednesday from 5-8 with the family present from 7-8.

 Kevin Lee Flannery of Juno Beach, Florida, died February 6, 2010 at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, Florida. He was 57 years old and succumbed to a massive heart attack.

Kevin was born on September 16, 1952 to Verda Kringen Flannery and the late Rod Flannery of Wessington Springs, South Dakota.

After graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1974, he served in the U.S. Navy for 8 years piloting P-3 aircraft. After military service, he went to work as an engineer with General Electric Space Systems.

Nels L. Dyrdahl, 76, of Rapid City, died Thursday, January 28, 2010 peacefully at home.

He was born February 27, 1933 in Oldham to Albert and Nellie (Fuglsby) Dyrdahl, on the family homestead.

He attended Hill Grade School and graduated from Oldham High School in 1951. He attended Augustana College before entering the United States Air Force in 1953. Nels served from 1953 until 1956 at Parks AFB, California, Keesler AFB, Missouri, Chanute, AFB, IL., Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah and Big Delta AFB, AK.

 Gerret VonEye, age 85, of Wessington Springs, formerly of Huron, died Saturday, February 6, 2010, at Avera Weskota Manor in Wessington Springs. His funeral service was p.m. Wednesday, February 10, at First Assembly of God Church in Huron with burial at Restlawn Memory Gardens Cemetery. Garret Jan VonEye, son of Gerrit and Katherine (Plooster-Keegel) VonEye, was born on April 30, 1924, in Platte, SD. He grew up and attended school in the Platte area.

On February 8, 1945, Gerrit entered the U.S. Army and served in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater during World War II. He was honorably discharged on August 14, 1946.

TRUE DAKOTAN PHOTOGRAPHS

BY DUKE WENZEL

 The 20th annual Wessington Springs Chamber of Commerce Farm and Home Show was held as scheduled despite cool temperatures at the Springs gymnasium on Monday, February 15, 2010.

Some vendors and visitors showed up late due to the weather.

Some of the early visitors are shown at left as they stopped at some of the 50 vendors who attended.

 People from the American Bank & Trust in Wessington Springs are shown at right as they cooked sausage for the bank’s free pancake feed that was held in the school lunch room. Shown from left are Kevin Mebius, Pat Jones, Joel Boschee and Charlie Bergeleen

BY CRAIG WENZEL

 The Jerauld County Commis-sioners met in a teleconference special meeting on Tuesday, February 9 to discuss a request to declare the county an emergency disaster area. Later in the meeting they passed a resolution to request that the governor of South Dakota declare the county a disaster area in order to asisst Central Electric with regaining some of the $600,000 in damage done to the electrical infrastructure in Jerauld County due to the January 24, 2010 ice storm. According to Jerauld County Emergency Management officer Martin Christopherson, the move is a formality required by counties in South Dakota in the process of seeking assistance from the Federal Government. The request for disaster status concludes stage one of the process. State two will include a damage assessment. The ice storm of January 24 caused severe damage to the rural Jerauld County electrical system including a power blackout that lasted nearly a week in some areas.

TRUE DAKOTAN PHOTO/DUKE

 MARY GORHING DISPLAYS A PLAQUE SHE RECEIVED for being named South Dakota Science Teacher of the Year by the state Science Association. Mary has been a teacher in the Wessington Springs school district for the past 17 years. Prior to that she taught in Alpena and Huron schools. She plans to retire at the end of the 2010 school year.

TEXT AND PHOTO BY DUKE WENZEL

 Greg Vavra accomplished a feat on Thursday, February 4, 2010 that Wessington Springs bowlers had tried to do for the past 103 years. He bowled the first known sanctioned perfect 300 game during regular league night at Pla-Mor Lanes.