Memorial services for Patricia Petersen, 97, of Ridgeview will be at 11:00 AM, Monday, June 24, 2024, at the UCC Church in Eagle Butte. Inurnment will be at the Eagle Butte Cemetery. Patricia passed away Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at the Avera Mary House in Pierre.  Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge is in charge of arrangements.

Patricia Catherine Miller Petersen, aka Patty, Trisha, & Granny, was born in Dupree, SD on 3/7/1927. She is the 4th child of Frank Edward (Pat) and Hazel ( Huddleston) Miller. Patty passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, at Avera Mary House in Pierre, SD on April 16, 2024 after a long battle with dementia. Service for Patty will be held at the UCC Church in Eagle Butte on Monday, June 24th at 11:00 MDT with lunch following the service.

Patty spent her childhood with her parents on a ranch six miles west of Ridgeview. She went to grade school at the Hagel School and in Ridgeview. Patty attended high school in Eagle Butte, graduating in 1946. She attended summer school one summer in Spearfish and then taught school one year at the Simon School. After one year of teaching, she knew that being a teacher wasn't the career for her. Not sure if her decision had anything to do with having Sonny and Donnie Simon as students or not!

Patty always had a large garden and done lots of canning to get her family through the winter months. Patty and her neighbor, Doris Downing, had two large garden areas a couple of years and raised tomatoes by the bushel. They made lots of tomato sauce, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, tomato juice, salsa and canned tomatoes. Bynum Downing and Les Petersen nick named them "Gurney" and "Burpee" after the seed catalogs.

Patty baked her own bread for years. One day she figured up the number of loaves of bread that she had baked over the years and it totaled somewhere around 19,000 loaves and that did not include the buns she baked also. The UCC church knew her for the pies she baked. She always brought 7 or 8 pies to the Harvest Festival and they would be auctioned off. The always brought in $1000 or more for the church.

Patty was a 4-H leader for many years and she was a member of the Parade Extension Club.

Patty also cooked for the Ridgeview Grade School Hot Lunch Program for a couple of years.

Patty and Les had three children, Ginger (and the late,Ted) Fenwick of Fort Pierre, SD, James (and the late Donna Rae) Petersen of Ridgeview, SD, and Jon Todd (Charlie Porter) Petersen of Palm Desert, CA.

Patty is survived by her three children, Ginger Fenwick, James Petersen, and Jon Todd Petersen. Five grand-children, Leslee (Jeremy) Zeiler, Spring Creek, NV, Trisha (Sonny) Togonon, San Diego, CA, Michael Todd (Jenessa) Petersen, Ridgeview, SD, Luke (Dreemis) Petersen Dupree, SD, and Molly (Dakota) Longbrake, Dupree, SD. 20 great-grandchildren, Zackary and Zephan Zeiler, Boise, ID, Tyler (friend, Tiana Canja) Togonon & Kaela Togonon (friend Mike D'Albero), Payne Petersen-Davis, Clay, Riley, Cedar, Wynter, Chancey, Bridger, Trinity, Laniah, Lawson, Levin, Lowen, MacKenzie, Jazmyn, Kemper & Kip. One sister, Grace Mulloy of Orcutt, CA. And numerous nieces and nephews.

Patty is preceded in death by her husband, Leslie, her parents, Pat and Hazel Miller, brother, Buck Miller, sisters Bethel Tibbs, Jean McClure, one sister-in-law, Bonnie Miller, one daughter-in-law, Donna Rae Petersen, one son-in-law, Ted Fenwick.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Avera Mary House, Pierre, SD

Services will be livestreamed on the Kesling Funeral Home Facebook page.