In a country where quickie marriages and easy divorce are common, there remains a sturdy group of women residing on the prairie of Western South Dakota who live life as it should be lived.

Faith, pioneer spirit, strength, natural ability, work ethic, and loyalty all contribute to faithful marriages and long lives. While these qualities are found all over the country, South Dakota, it seems, has been a special example of all that is good about America.

South Dakota State University will honor Larry Gabriel, who will receive a SDSU Distinguished Alumnus Service to South Dakota Award during the 43rd annual Distinguished Alumni Award Dinner and Program November 5. Gabriel is among three women and five men honorees.

Gabriel has served as Secretary of Agriculture for the State of South Dakota since 2000. His public service efforts include county commissioner, legislator, cabinet secretary and community volunteer.

Born and raised in western South Dakota, Gabriel was named Doane's Outstanding Ag Economics student at SDSU in 1969.

I have not been in the military.

My father trained other soldiers, but he did not see front-line action. Dad did have an older brother who was buried with honors before I was born. My grandfather came to America when he was six because his father was getting the family out of Germany before war began. The years keep going way back, yet still seem to be connected to war in one way or another.

Thirty years after the fact, I discovered that another uncle had seen action as a paratrooper. He still will not speak of those times. My mother’s brother was a military chaplain.

Haakon County State’s Attorney Ralph Kemnitz urged the Haakon County Board of Commissioners to formulate a plan that would insure the pay back of court appointed attorney fees.

Kemnitz met with the commissioners at their monthly meeting November 2 to discuss the problem.

The board had previously discussed the loss of dollars due to the lack of repayment. Auditor Shirley Dennis mailed letters to individuals that owed the county money for court appointed attorney fees. She noted some people had reimbursed the county.

The investigation and grant applying stage has begun for installing a sidewalk on the west side of Highway 73 from Elm Street north.

This and other items were covered during the scheduled November 1 meeting of the Philip City Council.

Harlan Quenzer of Schmucker, Paul, Nohr and Associates engineering firm will return with exact figures. Preliminary estimates put a five-foot-wide sidewalk at $15-20 per running foot. This does not include a retaining wall in two different places.

The Haakon County Ambulance Service has two new state-of-the-art defibrillators. A more basic unit was donated from the ambulance department to the Haakon County Sheriff’s Office to equip their second vehicle.

Each of the new defibrillators costs $20,000; one purchased from the Ambulance Service’s expenditures and one received by way of a grant. Jim Sobesta, Emergency Medical Services territory manager, delivered the two units and presented an in-service training to the ambulance personnel.

High school sweethearts at Philip High School finally marry ... over seventy years later.

Edmund Baye and Maxine Keyser were married on August 21, 2004. The wedding was attended by their children ... and grandchildren.

While in high school, Edmund drove a cream route and used to pick up Maxine to ride with him. She was three years behind him in high school. After he graduated in 1931, they parted. Many years later, they met again, this time at the sale barn in Philip.