AUTUMN
I love the prairies best of all,
the worldwide, rolling plains,
the treeless, scant-grown pasturelands
that blossom with the rains.
But there is something in me thrills
to Autumn here among the hills.
The fadeless blue of prairie skies,
the clouds that dawn makes red,
the meadowlark that, singing, flies
at daybreak overhead…
But Autumn's swift, relentless change,
draws my allegiance from the range.
Draws me from dusty fields of corn,
from star-bright night and bracing morn,
to where the hurried Autumn spills
its pots of color on the hills.
Gay yellow cottonwood and ash,
a bronze-brown oak; the scarlet splash
of bright-leaved maple on a height,
and smell of brushfires in the night.
I love the prairies best of all,
there has my spirit soared,
in still, cool mornings on those plains
outspread to greet the Lord.
But there is something in me thrills
to Autumn, here among the hills.

Shirley Baughman O'Leary 1932

Shirley B. O'Leary, 98, Sturgis, died Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at the Sturgis Regional Senior Center.
Visitation will be noon until 8 p.m. on Sunday at the Kinkade Funeral Chapel in Sturgis.
Committal services will be 9:30 a.m. Monday, September 17, 2012 at the Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis with Pastor Jenene Earl officiating.
Friends may gather at the Kinkade Funeral Chapel in Sturgis prior to leaving for the cemetery.
Shirley Foster Baughman was born June 7, 1914, in the Marine Hospital in Seattle, Washington, daughter of Dr. Daniel Sparks Baughman and Mary Uretta Foster Baughman.
At the close of World War I, Dr. Baughman went into private practice in Madison, South Dakota. Shirley attended school in Madison, and attended Stephens College, a girl's school in Columbia, Missouri, for two years. She then attended the University of South Dakota, graduating in 1935 Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Journalism.
She worked in the college News Bureau and on publications and edited the 1934 yearbook. She also won first prize in a short story contest of the American College Quill Club for "Rain Before Morning," published in The Parchment, November 1935.
Shirley met Patrick Maynard O'Leary of Timber Lake, South Dakota, at the University. They became engaged, but it was the Depression years, and marriage had to wait.
After graduation, she obtained a job as a secretary at the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, an international public health organization in Washington, D.C. There, she did translating to and from Spanish, wrote press releases, and after setting up their library, became their first librarian.
Shirley also researched medical subjects and co-authored Plague in the Americas with Dr. A.A. Moll of the Bureau.
Shirley and Pat were married June 23, 1936, when he hitch-hiked to D.C. for a visit, but he returned to South Dakota to finish law school and then practiced for a year in Estherville, Iowa. Times were still hard, so he returned to D.C., got a part-time job, and earned his Masters in Law at George Washington University. He began working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an attorney, but by that time he was 1-A with the draft, and in April 1942 he entered the U.S. Army.
While Pat was gone to the War, Shirley moved from their apartment in D.C. and bought a house in Green Meadows, West Hyattsville, Maryland. Pat returned home from the War in November 1945, and went back to work for the Department of Agriculture. In 1962 he transferred to the Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of State, where he worked until his retirement in 1971.
Shirley and Pat had three children.
During the Green Meadows years, Shirley was busy with her girls, Girl Scouts, church, citizen's associations, genealogy, and writing.
In 1956, she began an annual family newsletter entitled "The CTC Courier." She also researched and wrote an article on poisoning in man from eating poisonous plants which was published in Archives of Experimental Health in 1964.
In 1971 Pat retired from government they moved to Belle Fourche, SD, two of their daughters both married and moved away. During the Dakota years, the O'Learys began attending a series of reunions which brought together a large and widespread clan of O'Learys and Baughmans.
Pat passed away January 7, 1993, and is buried at Ft. Meade National Cemetery, South Dakota. Shirley continued to write "The CTC Courier" for many years, and was active with the Girl Scouts, the Butte County Historical Society, the Tri-State Museum, and the Tri-State Genealogical Society.
She authored various historical projects, including a slide show history and book on Stone Johnnies and Sheepherder's Monuments.
In 1995 she was awarded the Governor's Award for History for an Individual. In 1998 she published a volume of poetry, "Eighty Years of Makin' Rhymes." She served as Parade Marshal for the Black Hills Roundup 4th of July Parade, was a lifetime member of the Board of Directors for the Tri-State Museum, was awarded the 2003 Horizons Lifetime Volunteer Achievement Award by the City of Belle Fourche, and the 2011 issue of the Butte County Historical Society's calendar was dedicated to her.
In 2009 Shirley moved to the Key City Retirement Home in Sturgis, SD, where she enjoyed her remaining years in the company of caring friends and family.
Shirley is survived by her sister and husband,her 3 daughter's, granddaughter and great-grandson, grandson and wife, and 3 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.
Shirley was preceded in death by her husband Pat, her parents, her brothers Dan, Dick, and Pat Baughman, her sister Mary Lou Lillard, and grandson Robert "Bobby" Tevis.
In lieu of flowers, Shirley's family suggests a donation to support the Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts-Dakota Horizons 140 North Street, Rapid City SD 57701.

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