Zenetia Boke, age 98, of Spearfish, SD, and former longtime Faith area resident, passed away peacefully at Garden Hills Assisted Living in Spearfish, SD, early Monday morning, June 27, 2016.

Services are scheduled for Friday, July 15 at the United Methodist Church in Spearfish at 10 AM with interment in Black Hills National Cemetery at 1 PM. A Memorial has been established to the Methodist Youth Camps.

Zenetia Cravens Boke was born Sept 3, 1917 at Watsonville, CA to Oda Darvin and Lulu Josie (Given) Cravens. She, her parents and 4 brothers, moved to Mammoth Springs, AR where her only sister was born. Mr. Cravens died when Zenetia was 2 and Mrs. Cravens moved the family to Thayer, MO, where she sought work to provide for her family without government assistance.

Zenetia worked at various jobs all through her school years. In high school she was proud to be in Declam and perform in plays. After graduation, she worked as a secretary at Reed Harlan Groceries in Mammoth Springs and two years later she moved to St Louis to work for Peavely Dairy. She moved to San Diego, during World War II and was living in Brawley, CA working in payroll at El Centro Naval Air Station in the Imperial Valley, when she met her Navy husband to be, W Glenn (Bud) Boke. They were married May 6, 1943 in Chula Vista, CA. When Bud shipped out of San Francisco, she moved to Berkeley to work at Cutter Labs. When the war ended, she and Bud moved to the Boke Ranch, south of Faith, SD, which they managed and there raised their family of a son and a daughter. After 5 years without running water, they built a new ranch house with modern conveniences for their young family. In 2000 they started spending more time in Spearfish, and eventually living there full time.

Zenetia enjoyed life to the fullest, embracing change, new beginnings and always living in the moment. She and Bud enjoyed their children and their children's friends, following all their school activities. They also loved spending time with the grand and great grand children. Zenetia was known for her hospitality and good cooking. There was always room for another at the table . Whipping up a meal on short notice and providing a place to stay for friend or stranger was a common occurrence, especially in the summer. She enjoyed hunting season when familiar faces would show up at the door. She loved to cook and her family especially enjoyed her rhubarb pies and butterhorn rolls.

She had many talents, gardening was not one of them, but she did beautiful handy work such as embroidery, cross stitch, knitting, crocheting, sewing, also canning, recovering and refurbishing furniture. She was a passionate reader, loved to play bridge, do crossword puzzles to keep her mind fresh and have coffee with the girls at the local café.

She was a member of the United Methodist Church in Faith and later of the United Methodist Church, Spearfish. She held many offices in the Order of the Eastern Star through the years and was the pianist. In 1960 she was Grand Adah for the State of South Dakota. She sang in the Faith Methodist Choir and Faith Community Ladies Chorus for many years. Zenetia and Bud traveled extensively starting in 1973 and visited many countries. She loved to shop, bringing home wonderful treasures for her children and grandchildren especially at Christmas.

She was grateful for sharing her life with her son; Jim & Carol Boke, their children; Jason & Dana Boke, Jordan, Katherine & Judah, all of Spearfish, Rebecca & Scott Neely, Selah, Jonah, and Simeon in the UK, Brandon & Jolie Boke, CAB, Mac and Lucy in OK; Amy & Michael Kern, Caleb and Alexis in CO, her daughter; Peggy & Steve Alexander, their children, Scott Alexander, Christian Alexander and wife, Paula Eleazar, all of Houston TX. She is also survived by 14 nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband Bud, her parents, her four brothers and sisters in law, Darvin(Grace), Forrester(Jeannette), Stuart(Margaret), and Donnie (Martha) Cravens; one sister, Vivian (Richard) Blodgett one nephew- Ronnie Cravens.

Faith Area Memorial Chapel, Evanson Jensen Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements.