Secrie Lydia Ekberg, 106, died Sunday, October 2, 2011, at Westhills Village Health Care in Rapid City.

Secrie was born January 7, 1905, at Ashcroft, SD, to Andrew and Alina (Ylitalo) Peterson. She grew up in the Camp Crook area and attended country school. Secrie graduated from Bowman High School. She taught rural school for two years in Bullock, SD, after studying at Spearfish Teachers College and in Dickenson, ND. She then became the postmaster of Bullock, SD, until she married Harold M. Ekberg in Spearfish on November 19, 1929. The couple lived from 1946 to 1962 in the Slim Buttes area. They also ranched near Ladner and the South Cave Hills. They had a home in Buffalo while the kids went to school there. They sold the ranch due to Harold's health and moved to Belle Fourche. They spent winters in Arizona for 20 years. They moved to Spearfish in 1991. After Harold died in 1992, Secrie moved to Rapid City.

Secrie was a member of the Lutheran Church and ladies aid wherever she lived. Her most enjoyable hobby was oil painting. The walls in her home and family members' homes are a testament to her talent. She was an avid reader, and she played a mean game of Bridge. She was a ranch wife raising three children active in Cub Scout work, 4-H and rodeo, and she served as a willing worker wherever needed. Everyone knew her as a feisty Finlander, an amiable, capable, intelligent, independently-spirited woman. She was a wonderful role model for living and dying with courage and dignity. She will be sorely missed. She wanted to be remembered as a silent builder of the American west who started with nothing, worked for everything, and left much behind.

She is survived by two sons, Jerome (Delores) Ekberg, Piedmont, SD, and Charles (Lynn) Ekberg, Boulder, CO; one daughter, Shera Street and her partner, Bruce Jordan, Galliano Island, BC, Canada; six grandchildren; ten great-grandchildren; three great-great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews and their families in the United States and Canada; and other kin in Finland.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, three brothers, two sisters, and two grandsons.

Memorials have been established to St. James Lutheran Church and the Spearfish Senior Center.

A memorial service will be held at St. James Lutheran Church in Belle Fourche at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, October 6, 2011, with Pastor Jeff Otterman officiating. Inurnment will follow at Pine Slope Cemetery in Belle Fourche, with a reception following at the church.

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