VALE - Johnnie "Junior" Hurley died at his home in Vale on February 26, 2005. He was born August 4, 1934 in Atchinson County, Missouri near the Missouri small town of Tarkio, to Johnnie and Oralada Harrison Hurley.

He attended rural grade schools and two years of high school at Tarkio. At the age of 16 he joined a combine crew that took him to various parts of the country. The combine crew arrived at Mud Butte, South Dakota in 1951, where he was offered a job by Tommy McDermott so he stayed in South Dakota. He worked at various jobs around the western South Dakota area until he joined the paratroopers in 1958. When he got out of the service, he worked for Symonds Construction at Sturgis.

He met and then married Patsy Ferguson on May 19, 1960 at Sturgis. In 1961 he started his own drywall business, he continued with this until he sold the business and retired in 1987. In 1977, he and his partner, Darwin Brink, built the "Outlaw Inn Motel," now the Super 8, in Sturgis. The motel was sold in 1986. He and Patsy continued to live in Sturgis until December 1997 when they moved to Vale where they have lived since.

He is survived by his wife Patsy of Vale; two daughters, Jonni and her husband Dan Larson of Sturgis, Shawna and her husband Cary Schmidt of rural Sturgis; four grandchildren: Amanda Larson of Sturgis, Loren Larson of Bozeman, Montana, Taylor Schmidt and Teal Schmidt, both of rural Sturgis; two sisters, Betty and Frank Gorham of Auke Bay, Alaska, Ruth and Ray Hann of Olympia, Washington.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2, 2005 at the First Presbyterian Church in Sturgis with Rev. Harold Delbridge officiating. Burial will be at the Black Hills National Cemetery. Visitation will be at the Kinkade Funeral Chapel on Tuesday from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. and one hour prior to the services at the Church.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you give to the Meade County 4-H Rodeo or the Vale Community Center.