Stoneville --- Bernadene Lee, 90, Stoneville, S.D., died Friday, February 2, 2001, at the Sturgis Community Health Center.

Visitation will be Tuesday from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. at Kinkade Funeral Chapel. Funeral services will be Wednesday, February 7, 2001, at 11 a.m. at the Central Meade County Community Center at Union Center, with Rev. Wes Labrier officiating. Burial will be Wednesday at the Bear Butte Cemetery in Sturgis at 2 p.m.

Bernadene was born January 3, 1911, in a log house at Marcus, S.D., to John W. and Luceita (Crowell) Howie. She attended grade school in rural Meade County, with the first school being a converted homestead shack. She met her future husband, Lloyd Lee, while attending high school at Stoneville. She then finished high school in Sturgis and attended Spearfish Normal School, where she received her first-grade certificate to teach. She taught school in rural Meade County for 22 years. Bernadene said, "If I could have three wishes granted, the first one would be to have helped each one of my students in at least one way." Those students attended the following schools: Berada, Howie, Sunny Slope, South Pleasant View, Lucerne, Fairpoint, United and Squaw Butte.

She married Lloyd L. Lee, a teacher, on June 24, 1933. The couple moved to various schools, where he taught until they moved to the farm near Stoneville in 1942.

Celebrating her life are five children: four daughters and one son; one sister, Zula I. Lee, Rapid City; 20 grandchildren; and 46 great-grandchildren also survive her.

Her parents, her husband and one brother, James Howie, preceded her in death.

A memorial has been established to the Union Center Community Church Building Fund.

--- From The Rapid City Journal - February 4, 2001