Mary Mable Wenzel, 94, died at Weskota Manor Avera nursing home in Wessington Springs on Monday, January 4, 2010 with her four children and a daughter-in-law present. 

 Funeral services was at the United Methodist Church in Wessington Springs on Friday, January 8, at 1:30 p.m. with Rev. Jan Price officiating. Burial was beside her dear husband at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Wessington Springs.

Mary was born on July 23, 1915, to Mable (Creighton) and John Whitlock on a farm near Wessington Springs. To this union three children were born, including Raymond and Robert Whitlock. Her parents divorced when she was very young and she became responsible for much of the care of her little brothers. Times were tough during that time as the nation faced the Great Depression and drought swept across the Midwest. Mary helped the family by doing the housework, tending cows, gardening and doing odd jobs for neighbor ladies. She traded housework for piano lessons as a girl, eventually playing the piano by ear at the First Baptist Church.

When her “beautiful little red haired baby brother” Robert would lag behind as they walked to school she would often pick him up and carry him the rest of the way. She spent the remainder of her life carrying her family and friends during times of need, and rejoicing with them during their triumphs. A handsome young farmboy, Donald Leroy Wenzel, who lived nearby would tend the cattle in a pasture not far from her home. And she began to notice him. They were married in Deadwood, SD on October 7, 1935, with Mary’s brother Raymond as the witness. Hoping to find work in the western South Dakota beet fields, the three of them spent the wedding night in a Model A Ford beneath a bridge near Sturgis, SD in sight of Bear Butte. Mary made pancakes and fried sugar beets for breakfast the next morning. Don always said it was the best meal he ever had. The beet harvest was already finished, so they returned to Jerauld County. Mary and Don had four children including Florence Joy, Donald Eugene, Dennis (Duke) Paul, and (James) Craig. Mary had a myriad of interests during her lifetime… gardening, music, children, animals.

At mealtime there was always room to pull another chair or two up to the big round oak table. It might have been bean soup, homemade chicken and noodles, or macaroni and cheese…. but there was always enough in the pot to feed everyone at the table. When a chicken was fried, she always left the choice pieces for her family, saying, “I like the back and the neck.” She took flying lessons in 1946. During her final lesson the flight instructor threw her a curve. “He shut off the plane, laid back in his seat and said, ‘put it down Mary’. She looked out the window, found a place to put the plane down and made a ‘dead stick’ landing. She was pregnant with Craig when she took her solo flight in early 1947, the first woman in Jerauld County to earn her pilot’s wings.

Mary was always busy. She was a longtime member of the Eastern Stars, she gave haircuts in her home for a quarter (the standard payment was a quarter if you had one, otherwise it was free). She worked at the Jerauld County Memorial Hospital as a nurse’s aide, she wall papered and painted for many people in the community, cleaned the fire hall, post office and American Legion/Prairie Lounge. She loved God, loved her family and had a host of friends. Mary’s golden rule included the saying, “If you can’t say something good about someone, you should say nothing at all.”

When she needed to enter the nursing home in 2002, Don went along. “We’re not going to let this split us up,” he said, as he made his own arrangements to go to the home with her. Side-by-side they shared each other’s love for 69 years. On February 16, 2005, Mary took Don’s hand in her own, and as they shared a final “I love you”, he passed away. It was a long and joyous love story.

Her reaction to a “Merry Christmas” greeting often was followed by, “I’m Mary all of the time!” And she was. Her cheerful disposition made her popular among the residents and staff at Weskota Manor. She always greeted each staff member by name as they entered her room, partly as to keep “her mind active”… but also, because she loved them all as if they were family.

Grateful for having shared her life are her children and their spouses: Florence Joy Klein; Donald Eugene and his wife, Pat; (Duke) Dennis Paul and his wife Karen; and James Craig and his wife, Penny all of Wessington Springs. Mary’s 13 surviving grandchildren, and their families include: (Florence Joy’s family) Steven (Dixie) Hickens, Rapid City, Bonnie Thompson, Rapid City and Maridell (Tom) Standish, Yankton, seven great grand children and 11 great-great grandchildren; (Donald’s family) Donald Timothy (Vickie), Renner, SD, and Stacey Wenzel, of San Jose, CA, 11 great grandchildren, four great-great grandchildren, four step-grandchildren Vicki (Jeff) Peskey, Wessington Springs, Kory (Mary) Farstad, Huron, LeeAnn Clemetson (friend Steven), Huron, LeRoy (Caren) Clemetson, Brookings; 10 step great-grandchildren and three step great-great grandchildren. (Duke’s family) John (Mary) Wenzel, Gillette, Wyo., Denise Wenzel, Gillette, Wyo., Kari (Tom) Kosmicki, Gillette, Wyo. Perry (Joleen) Wenzel, Bosman, Mt., Daren (Michele) Wenzel, Gillette, Wyo., 18 great grandchildren and 17 great-great grandchildren, six step grandchildren, four step great-grandchildren; (Craig’s family) Kimberly, St. Helens, Or., Korrie (Cheryl), Mitchell, and Matt (Amber), of Pierre, six grand children one great-grandchild.

She is also survived by her half sisters, Mayme (Norman) (Whitlock) Casady, of Connecticut and Mignon (Whitlock) Martain, of Kansas, their childlren and a sister-in-law, Thone (Robert) Whitlock, of Washington.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, two infant grandchildren, Gary and Joni Hickens and a grandson Terry Hickens, her two brothers, and her special nephew David Whitlock. Pallbearers were six of her seven grandsons, John, Daren, Korrie, Matt, Donald Timothy Wenzel, Steven Hickens and grandson-in-law Tom Kosmicki. Honorary pallbearer was grandson Perry Wenzel, Boseman, MT., who was unable to attend.