Kenneth Miner

Funeral services for Kenneth Miner were held on Monday, August 30, 2021, at 1:00 p.m., at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Gregory, SD, with Father Jonathan Dillon officiating.

Interment was in the St. John Catholic Cemetery in Paxton, SD. Clausen Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

Kenny was born August 31, 1935, in Gregory, SD, to Harlow and Helen (Young) Miner. He grew up on the Miner farm 13 ½ miles south of Gregory, living there the next 63 years. He was an active 4-H member and showed prize-winning registered Hereford cattle. During high school, he continued in 4-H, attending the SD State Fair with his cattle, and adding FFA and Gregory Gorilla football to his life.

After high school graduation in 1953, Kenny planned on accepting an appointment to West Point Military Academy and serving in the Korean War. The war’s end made his decision to attend South Dakota State College on an engineering scholarship. That autumn, Kenny and Doris married October 14, 1953, at St. John’s Catholic Church at Paxton. They moved to Minneapolis where Kenny worked for Doris’s aunt, Mildred Putnam Frevel, at her company that made aluminum windows. His second job was working with ice skates at Pierce Ski and Skate, where he learned to build, sharpen, and restore skates.

Kenny and Doris moved back to South Dakota in 1954 to help run the farm. Kenny soon ran his own herd of Angus cattle and a flock of Suffolk sheep. Over the many years on the Miner Sheep Ranch, he raised Suffolk rams for sale and taught his kids how to wash sheep, clip them for show, and earn purple ribbons at 4-H and regional stock shows. Kenny encouraged all the kids to be 4-H members, with livestock, garden, and other projects. At one point, Kenny bought a Shetland pony named Flossie to teach the kids how to ride. After Jana was promptly thrown from the pony, the Shetland became Kate’s horse and Flossie’s colt Frosty became a longtime family member and an excellent little horse 4-H project.

Growing up, Kenny worked hard on the farm and his kids were expected to do the same.

Kenny was an active member of the community, serving as a 4-H leader for many years and helping with Gregory County Achievement Days. He served on the school boards for Carlock, Pleasant Hill, and Gregory school districts. Kenny was elected to leadership positions with the South Dakota Farmers Union, the South Dakota Sheep Growers Association, the National Sheep Board, and the board of the American Sheep Industry Association. For 32 years, he was a school bus driver for the Gregory and Colome, SD schools. He worked as a bartender for the Hillcrest Inn in Burke, SD.

Kenny enjoyed hunting elk and moose in Wyoming and Colorado with Ray Stukel and other friends. Deer hunting, pheasant hunting, and hosting breakfasts for the annual Senator Tom Daschle pheasant hunts were events he enjoyed. Kenny was an excellent cook and grilled hundreds of pounds of pork loins, beef, and lamb to serve at 4-H events in Gregory and Tripp counties, Farmers Union meetings at the State Fair, weddings, and graduations.

While Kenny made sure work was done, there were days when he would take the kids and gather mulberries, chokecherries, and wild plums. Hot summer afternoons, he would dam up the creek south of the place and wade with the kids while catching minnows. The true highlight of his life was his unconditional love for his three granddaughters. He talked about Courtney’s work with satellites, Kristi flying “big planes” for the Air Force, and Timmi becoming an emergency room doctor.

Dementia clouded the last years of Kenny’s life. The one person he always knew was Doris. The last two years of their life together were some of their best times.

Kenneth Ward Miner passed away September 3, 2020, in Independence, MO, from complications of myasthenia gravis and dementia.

Surviving Kenneth are his children: Jana Miner, Fort Pierre, SD; Kevin Miner (Judy Ingold), Bonesteel, SD; Kate Miner (Linda Watson), Kansas City, MO; Lorrie Miner Brannan (Lee Brannan), Presho, SD, and grandchildren: Courtney Brannan Ewell (Todd Ewell), Bismarck, ND; Kristi Miner (Chris Ramler Miner), Wichita, KS, and Timmi Lunsford Hutchison (Jesse Hutchison), Englewood, OH. He is survived also by brothers-in-law, Joe (Julie) Putnam and Pat (Linda) Putnam, CA, and Jim Putnam (Texas), and many nieces and nephews. He also is survived by his good friends Ray and Melba Stukel, and Larry and Carol Shepherd, and his Kansas City friends Kathy Timmerman and Tina Spallo.

Predeceasing him was his wife of 66 years, Doris Putnam Miner; his parents, his brother Harlow Jr. and his wife Carol, his sister Madeline; in-laws, Francis and Bertha Putnam; nephews Greg Miner and Brian Putnam; brothers-in-law Bob Putnam and Morris Marwede; sistersin law Margaret Putnam Marwede, Judy Putnam, Mary Lou Putnam, Mary Jane Putnam; and his great friends Ray Clemens, Robert Jappert, Glen Burgess, Kenny Messick, and Sonny Dolezal.