Ethelyn Peters, 86, longtime west Faith area ranch wife, passed away Sunday morning, May 25th at the Sturgis Community Hospital.


Funeral services are scheduled for Thursday, May 29th at 10 AM at the Church of Christ in Faith. Calvin Chapman and Larry Wilson will officiate.

Interment will be 2:30 PM, Thursday afternoon at Black Hills National Cemetery. Casketbearers will be grandsons, Trevor Peters and Joe Doyle, nephews; Gary McGinnis and Richard Rankin, and neighbors; Reid Palmer and John Heidler. Her family, neighbors and friends are considered honorary bearers.
A memorial has been established.


Ethelyn Murphy Peters was born Aug. 21, 1921 at her family's homestead north of Haynes, ND. Her parents were Levi Harrison and Clara (Richardson) Murphy. She received 2 years of education at the East Grand River School and in 1929 the family moved to the Moreau River area of Perkins Co., northwest of Faith. There she attended the Weedman school for six years, sometimes being carried part way by her older sister Kay. She also attended one year of high school in Ipswich, SD. She then returned to the family place and worked herding sheep and doing other ranch work for neighbors and family.

She met Emmett G. Peters at a New Years eve dance in 1938. He re-enlisted in the US Army, she continued doing ranch work, and after his discharge and return they were united in marriage on Dec. 13, 1943 at Dupree, SD.
They began their life together west of Faith, working for Lynn Farnham and later worked in Casper, WY and in Bison, SD. In the early 1950's they established their home ranch on Deep Creek, Perkins Co.

She loved the ranch life and neighboring. Community brandings, lambing and docking time were special times for Ethelyn and caring for her family, gardening, canning the produce as well as working in the hay field, quilting and baking. Her "fritters", a recipe handed down from her mother in law, were always in demand during those special times.

She stayed on the ranch, lovingly cared for by her family, until April of this year, and was always asking how "things were going" and how the calves and lambs were doing.

Keeping her memory most dear, as the best mother, mother in law, grandmother, great and great-great grandmother are her sons; Duane and Guy Peters, rural Faith, Toby (Connie) Peters, Sturgis, daughter; Virginia (Bud) Doyle, Lemmon, 7 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren, a sister; Kay Spawn, Casper, WY and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, one great grandson, Trenton James Keffeler, brothers; Vernon and Cyrus Murphy, and sisters; Frances Dixon, Mary Morgan and Ruth McGinnis.
Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Faith Area Memorial Chapel, Evanson Jensen Funeral Home, Faith.