Brookings Register | Gatian Sweeney – Spearfish – Brookings Register

Gatian “Gay” Marlene Sweeney, 89, of Spearfish passed away on Oct.23, 2022.
Gay was born in Elkton, SD, to Edwin and Kathryn Mielke. She had eight brothers and sisters and grew up working on a farm outside of Elkton. She graduated Elkton High School in May, 1951. She went on to St. Mary’s School of Practical Nursing. In July of 1959 she married Sylvester Sweeney of Presho. They had three children, Tim, Tony (Diny) Sweeney and Jennifer “Sweeney” (Pete) Henderson, she was a loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to Anna-Marie Danielle “Sweeney” Shane, Luke Sweeney, Moriah “Sweeney” Crowe, Kiara Sweeney, Caelan Sweeney, William Henderson, Basil Henderson and Essabella Voss.
Gay worked as a licensed practical nurse in Pierre, Winner and Belle Fourche. She worked in Belle Fourche at the Northern Hills Long Term Care facility for over 25 years. She loved caring for people especially those who couldn’t care for themselves. Gay served the nurses of South Dakota for years also as a member of the LPN Association and as president. She represented the association at national conventions in Houston and New Orleans.
She went on to continue to serve her community and people when she joined to the Senior Corp Volunteers. She volunteered for 14 years at helping thousands of children at the Spearfish West Elementary School helping them to improve their math and reading skills.
She received special recognition from Sen. John Thune’s office as well as from President George H.W. Bush for her thousands of hours or volunteer work helping the youth of Spearfish.
Gay loved to travel to see family and friends. She traveled many times to California and Colorado to visit her sisters, as well to Washington, D.C., and other places in the United States. She also made the flight across the Atlantic to visit Germany, Netherlands, Austria and France. She would travel by car, bus and airplane in order to get out and visit the world.
Gay had an infectious love of life and caring passion for family, friends and children.
Her smile, sense of humor and laugh will be missed by all that knew and loved her. She is survived by three siblings Bill, Gene, Dan. Her children Tim, Tony his wife Diny, Jennifer her husband Pete, as well as her grandchildren and great-grandchild.
Gay was preceded in death by her parents, husband, brothers Allen, Edwin, Charles, sisters Virginia, Kathleen and granddaughter Danielle.
Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 4, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Spearfish. Interment will follow at the National Cemetery in Sturgis, SD at 1 p.m.
Arrangements are under the care of Fidler-Isburg Funeral Chapels and Isburg Crematory of Spearfish. Online condolences may be written at www.fidler-isburgfuneralchapels.com.