January 8, 1933 – September 20, 2025
Lila “Tiny” Peterson Farlee passed away September 20, 2025 at her home with her husband of 74 years by her side. Funeral services were held September 27, 2025 at the Dupree School Gym. Burial was in the Lantry Cemetery. Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge was in charge of arrangements.
Lila Mae was born on January 8, 1933, to Carl and Elizabeth (Lizzie Acker) Peterson. She joined four older brothers and became the first daughter.
Tiny became the big sister to her four younger sisters. This was a role she took very seriously. She helped around the farm doing chores both inside and outside.
She spent many summers staying with different aunts and uncles helping them with their families.
Tiny attended school at Eagle Butte. She started dating Keith Farlee and they were married in 1951. They lived with his parents and in 1954 moved to Pretty Creek, where they remained until 1957. They then built their present home and moved to south of Lantry. They had four children.
Tiny was a stay-at-home mother and wife to begin with. She helped Keith with taking care of cattle.
In 1968, when Toni began school, Tiny found an apartment in Eagle Butte and moved to town with the kids. She got a job working three days a week at Frank Ganje’s Coast to Coast. This continued for the next 25 years. It was also during this time that she became “Grandma Tiny” to half the community.
She loved to feed people. Cooking a big meal seemed like a walk in the park for Tiny. If you showed up at her home near mealtime, you were going to eat with her. This included salesmen, 7th Day Adventist church people, and neighbors. Many of her nieces and nephews would spend time staying with her during the summer months; she was like another mother to them.
Tiny became involved in several organizations— the local extension club, the Willing Workers, and other activities. She started bowling and became a 4-H leader for the Lantry Trail Blazers. Keith and Tiny, along with their children, were involved in the Lantry Rock and Ride Saddle Club. As she got older, she became a Red Hatter.
She would gather her grandchildren and several others that called her Grandma and go to Rita and Tony Murray’s every fall to camp along the Moreau River. They would set up a tent, cook on a camp stove, and play in the river.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Carl and Lizzie Peterson; her in-laws, Don and Tina Farlee; four brothers, Delbert, Dennis, Harley and Raymond Peterson; three sisters, Betty Horn, Ianita Curley, and Marilyn Roth; one granddaughter and one great-granddaughter.
Tiny is survived by her husband, Keith Farlee of Lantry; four children Jerry (Rita) Farlee of Eagle Butte, Rita (Tony) Murray of Isabel, Rick (Kristi) Farlee and Toni (Jon) Holmes of Dupree; one sister, Pat Fish of Sedro-Wooley, WA; one brother-in-law, Clint Farlee of Dupree; three sistersin- law, Cherie Farlee of Dupree, Judy Farlee of Eagle Butte and Mary Farlee of Timber Lake.
(Keith Farlee’s address is Box 72, Lantry, SD 57636.)