A funeral service for Lavera Pearl Bull Bear, age 94, was held at 10 a.m., Saturday, August 1, 2026, at the Bonesteel City Hall in Bonesteel, South Dakota, with Richard Broken Nose leading the prayers. Casket bearers were Tim Marshall, Luke Marshall, Mitch Bull Bear, Nate Bull Bear, Michael Bull Bear, Bryson Edwards, and Vince Janis. Burial will take place at the IOOF Cemetery in Gregory at a later date. Kotrba-Smith Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements. Lavera Pearl Bull Bear, Wakpamni Wi, was born January 24, 1932, at the hospital in Rosebud, South Dakota, to Charles Marshall and Martha Blanche (Roubideaux) Marshall. She was raised in Old Ring Thunder. Her grandparents were Joseph Marshall and Elizabeth Morrison on her father’s side, and Louis Roubideaux and Adelia Blunt Arrow on her mother’s side. Her great-grandparents were Blunt Arrow and Comes Out. Her great-great grandparents were Two Heart and Making Blaze, and Scares The Wind and Good Face Woman.
On February 9, 1957, she married Adolph Bull Bear at Wanblee, South Dakota. They were both living at Pine Ridge then. They made a life and a family together.
Her Lakota name means she is always giving, and she spent her life proving it true. She gave her time, her food, her help. She did that while carrying her own battles, and she never used those battles as a reason to stop showing up.
She worked housekeeping, and she cooked for Head Start, feeding other people’s children the way she fed her own. Feeding people was how she said things. When anyone walked through her door, the first words out of her were, “Did you eat?” That was her way of saying, “I love you, it’s good to see you again.”
Her laugh and her smile were the kind that got into a room and stayed. Her home was clean and covered in pictures of her kids and grandkids. She was proud of every one of them. When a great- granddaughter was given her name, her voice shook and she said, “After me?” She told everybody about it after that.
There was strength and sadness in everything she did. Both were real. She carried them together and she kept giving.
Lavera passed away on July 24, 2026, in Winner. She is survived by her children Charles (Marla) Bull Bear of Milks Camp and Delores Marshall (Tex Langdeaux) of Sicangu Village; her older sister Opal Thelma (Marshall) Stars; 14 grandchildren; 17 greatgrandchildren; and 5 great-great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents Charles Marshall and Martha Blanche (Roubideaux) Marshall; her daughter Carol Bull Bear; her sons Patrick Bull Bear and Theodore “Ted” Bull Bear; her grandsons, Charlie Bull Bear and Skylar Marshall; her granddaughter RaeAnn Huber; and her brothers and sisters Narcisse Brave, Adelia White, Joseph Marshall Sr., Margaret Krueger, and Charlotte Weston.
