Service of Remembrance for Arthur "Art" Kern, 85, of Aberdeen, formerly of the Watauga, SD area will be Tuesday, May 3, 2005 at 10:30 a.m. at the Prince of Peace Chapel of Evanson Jensen Funeral Home in Lemmon, SD. Florence Hoff, CLP will officiate and burial with Full Military Honors by the Ralph T. Ankerson American Legion Post #139 will follow at the McIntosh Cemetery in McIntosh, SD.

ARTHUR "ART" KERN was born on December 7, 1919 to Karl and Ernastine (Glasser) Kern at their ranch home south of Watauga, SD. He was raised there and attended a rural school. Later, Art graduated from McIntosh High School in 1940.

He was inducted into the U.S. Army on February 27, 1942 at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Art was assigned to the 791st Ord. (LM) Co. of the 91st Infantry. His specialty was sheet metal worker. He also qualified with the carbine rifle MKM. Art went overseas on April 12, 1944 returning to the U.S. on September 10, 1945. He entered into combat with the enemy in the Rome-Arno, the North Apennines and the Po Valley Campaigns. Art entitled to wear the European-Africa-Middle Eastern Theater Service Medal, Two overseas Service Bars and the Good Conduct Medal. He was Honorably Discharged from active duty on October 29, 1945 in Camp McCoy, Wisconsin.

After the war, Art returned to the ranch in Corson County, SD. He married Arlene Running Hawk in 1960. Into this union came three children. They lived on a ranch south of Watauga. Arlene was killed in an automobile accident in 1969. The children then lived with Esther and Herby Bakkehaug in McIntosh.

Art married Johanna Seidler, Flying Horse in 1974. The family then moved to Lemmon where he worked at the Lemmon Livestock, Hirsch Livestock Yards and Lynn's Super Value. He returned to the ranch south of Watauga and continued to live there until 2002 at which time he went to live with his daughter, Ardis and her family. In 2003 he entered the Manorcare Nursing Home in Aberdeen, where he resided until the time of his death.

Art Kern passed from this life on Friday morning, April 29, 2005 at the Avera St. Lukes Hospital in Aberdeen, SD. He was a member of the Spencer Memorial Presbyterian Church in Lemmon and a lifetime member of the Ralph T. Ankerson American Legion Post #139, of McIntosh, SD.

Grateful for having shared his life are his daughter, Ardis (Rick) Clifford, of Westport, SD; son, Arlen Kern, of Gering, NE; his ex-wife, Johanna Kern, of Lemmon, SD; three step daughters, Brenda Schneider, of McIntosh, SD, Eleanor (Steve) Jackson, of Lemmon, SD and Katherine (Mark) Baumeister, of Lemmon, SD; sixteen grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. Preceding Art in death were his parents, a brother, a sister, his wife, one son, one stillborn daughter, one stillborn son and one grandson.

Memorials are preferred to the Ralph T. Ankerson American Legion Post #139, of McIntosh.