Mary Niederman, age 92 of Rapid City, formerly of Morristown, SD; passed away on Saturday, April 22, 2023 at Fountain Springs Healthcare in Rapid City, SD.

Visitation for Mary will be held from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 27, 2023 at the West River Funeral Directors Funeral Home 420 East Saint Patrick Street. Suite 107 in Rapid City, SD.

Private family burial will be held at the Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, SD.

A memorial service for Mary will be held on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. at the Prince of Peace Chapel of the Evanson Jensen Funeral Home in Lemmon, SD, with Pastor Mike Temple officiating.

Mary A. Niederman (Bail) was born on the family farm southwest of McIntosh, SD to Luella (Anderson) and Albert Bail on June 11, 1930, the 4th of six children. She lived with her parents and siblings there until 1936 when her father felt jobs were scarce and he needed to leave South Dakota to find work elsewhere.  Her Dad found work for a WPA project at the Oregon Shipyards near Portland, OR.

Mary attended  rural schools near Watauga, SD  and Cedar Mills Elementary in Beaverton, OR.  In 1947, her grandmother Juliette Bail asked the family to return to SD to help on the farm.  At this time some of her siblings married and chose to stay in Oregon.   Later her family moved into Watauga where her father reconditioned a house he had moved there from a farm site.

Mary met her future husband, Thomas Niederman at a dance in Watauga.  They were united in marriage November 9, 1950 in Lemmon.  By this time, most of her siblings were married and had relocated to Oregon.  Her parents also made the move to Portland in 1952.

Tom was employed as manager at the Grain Elevator in Morristown and that is where they made their home. Tom took a Civil Service exam for the Postmaster position in Morristown in 1955 and held that position for 33 years until he retired.

Mary loved to sew and made her daughter's many dresses.  She also loved to crochet and to quilt and ensured that each of her grandchildren would have a handmade quilt from her.  In addition, she helped to refinished furniture for their home.  She had an enormous garden and canned produce. She made a variety of jelly from local apples, plums,and chokecherries.   She was known for her apple pies.  Her mother, Luella and friend, Christine Schmidt instilled an interest in international foods.  Many kuchens lined the counter top, in addition to knepfla, homemade noodles, lefse and later Italian and Mexican dishes.

After Tom retired, they enjoyed traveling to Oregon, California, Arizona and to Germany where Karen and her husband were stationed in the Army.  From Germany, they travelled with family to Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

She was a member of the Lemmon Seventh-day Adventist church until it closed in 2004.  She then joined the Dakota Conference Seventh-day Adventist church.  She served as a deaconess, and Sabbath School Superintendent.

Tom passed away July 26, 2000 and Mary remained living at their family home in Morristown.

In 2015, after a visit to Rapid City, she became ill and required emergency surgery.  The road to recovery was lengthy; and the family felt a move to Rapid City was in order.  She resided at Somerset Court until 2018 when she suffered a stroke.  Afterwards, she lived at Fountain Springs Healthcare Facility until her death.

Preceding her in death were her husband, Tom, daughter, Carol, and sisters, Charlotte, Juliet (Toots), Virginia and brother, Vincent.  She is survived by her daughter Karen (Johnathan) Cooper, grandchildren, Kyle Cooper, Jordan (Kayla) Cooper, Gina Cooper and Kevin Niederman and brother, Gary (Delores) Bail.