Funeral services for Daisy Wilkinson, 86, lifelong rancher of Prairie City, SD are set for Saturday, April 7th, at 10:00 a.m. at the Beckman Memorial Wesleyan Church in Prairie City. Rev. Brad Burckhalter will officiate. Following the lunch with the family, burial will take place at the Glendo Cemetery, near Prairie City. Visitation will be one hour prior at the church on Saturday morning.


Daisy Pearl Wilkinson was born August 4th, 1920 at Glendo, South Dakota to Lydia (Schmidt/Smith) and Harvey Wilkinson with Mrs. L.T. Larson as midwife. She had an older brother, Glen, and they were followed by sisters, Violet, Lila, Dorothy, and Bessie, and two more brothers, Stanley and Harold. Her parents and grandparents operated the Glendo store and post office located on the upper floor of the large two story house they lived in.


Times were tough and during the thirties they lost the main ranch and moved to Lydia's homestead along Big Nasty Creek. Harvey died during the height of the depression in 1937 from complications from diabetes, leaving Lydia alone with their eight children. Through perseverance and hard work, Lydia and the older kids were able to buy back the home place at Glendo and, in the spring 1941, they moved back into the old Glendo Ranch store building.


Later that same year, Daisy went to the west coast to work in Yakima Washington, packing fruit and later working at a hospital. While working in Washington, her own health failed and she was diagnosed with Bright's disease that attacked her kidneys and almost killed her. She made it back home to recuperate and stayed to help her widowed mother on the ranch, where she lived until they moved to her brother Stan's place where her mother, Lydia Wilkinson, died of cancer.


Daisy could always be counted on to help anyone who needed her and she spent her lifetime helping others. Her sister Lila had some severe health problems when Betty was four and Judy was two. The girls lived with Lydia and Daisy for the year that Lila spent flat on her back in bed. Daisy enjoyed playing dolls with her great niece, Jenny, laughing at her nieces' and nephews' jokes and not-so-witty sayings, and playing ball with her nephews. Although Daisy had no children of her own, her nieces and nephews all knew they were loved by this gentle, kind prairie lady.


Betty can remember hearing Aunt Daisy play the piano in the evening and there was one particular song that she always played. When asked the name of that song, she didn't know because she made the song up herself and had never given it a name! At the urging of her family, she played her lively tune for the crowd gathered to help her celebrate her 85th birthday a couple years ago.


At the time of her death, Daisy was living by herself at the former Bob and Faye Week ranch near Prairie City, where she was very faithful at feeding the many cats, no matter what the weather was. Daisy passed away at the West River Regional Medical Center in Hettinger, ND on April 3, 2007.


Survivors include three sisters, Violet Krambeer, Buffalo, SD, Lila White, Hettinger, ND, Bessie Campbell, Mesa, AZ, two brothers, Stan (Patsy) Wilkinson, Prairie City, SD and Harold (Esther) Wilkinson, Frazee, MN, numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.


Preceding her in death were her parents, Harvey and Lydia Wilkinson, a sister, Dorothy Spangler, and a brother, Glen Wilkinson, three aunts, Martha Negaard, Susie Behl, and Glencora Barck, and three uncles, Sam Smith, Gus Smith and Charles Wilkinson.


Funeral arrangements are entrusted with the Evanson Jensen Funeral Home in Hettinger, ND.