Frances Leota (Mackey) Derflinger was born April 20, 1916 in Elrod, Clark County, South Dakota to Ralph Warren (J. Ralph) and Lena Leota (Milligan) Mackey. She was third child of five sisters and four brothers born to the Mackey's, and nicknamed "Fan". Later she accepted the shortened version of Fran as well.


In the fall of 1926, when she was 10 years old, she and her family moved from Clark County to Perkins County via covered wagons, settling west of Chance. In 1928 the family moved to a place on Rabbit Creek and she attended rural schools completing the eighth grade at Happy Hill School. She helped raise her brothers and sisters, worked with her parents and moved into Faith to run a boarding house, so her younger twin brothers, Pat and Bill, could attend high school.


In 1948 she married Marvin Derflinger and two children were born to them, Wade and Lillian (Lilly Rae). They worked for ranchers along the Moreau River, including the Miller Ranch and later purchased the Garl place near the river on Highway 73. She continued to live there and raise her family, sacrificing much to provide for them. She believed in God, knew Jesus Christ as her savoir and taught her children from the Bible. Fran made a daily walking trip to the river bridge to read the level for the U.S. Geological Survey. She continued to live on the ranch until suffering a heart attack in 1996 when she moved into Faith. She loved to return to the place often.


Fran loved people, especially her family, and she was always there for them. But strangers were also welcome in her home and she was known to pick up a hitchhiker from time to time. Fran also loved to dance and sing, was an avid reader and loved and wrote poetry. She has also contributed many wonderful pieces for friends throughout the years and many were published in a book by those friends. She was a good cook, her refrigerator was always full and when anybody was at her home she provided them with lots of good things to eat. It did not matter if it was at mealtime, ten in the morning or midnight, if you stopped in you had to eat. Fran loved animals, especially dogs and always had at least one around.


She is survived by her children, Wade and his wife Lorena Derflinger of rural Faith, Lilly Rae and her husband Chris Witt of Pine Ridge, SD, 9 grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews, including special nieces, Sue Henrichsen, who is more like a daughter than a niece and Nancy Trainor who was raised as a sister.


Fan was preceded in death by her parents, her siblings, Beatrice Riddle, Emma Heppner, Dorothy Sundahl, Georgia Hampel, Teresa Squyres, Charles, Robert, Walter, and William Mackey and one grandson, Wesley McFarland,
She passed away with her children at her side November 6, 2007 at the New Underwood Good Samaritan Home. She was greatly loved and will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

Funeral services will be Saturday, Nov. 10 at 11 AM at the Faith Community Legion Hall with Joe Taylor and Pastor Harold Delbridge officiating. Following the service a time of fellowship and refreshment will held prior to the procession to the Chance Cemetery. Visitation will be Friday from 1 to 7 p.m. at Faith Area Memorial Chapel and one hour prior to the funeral service.