Candace Ducheneaux

Candace Ducheneaux, 75, passed away December 11, 2024. She spent her last days at home surrounded by those she loved and died after a short illness that she couldn’t overcome.

Services were held at the Ducheneaux Chapel on Sunday, December 15, 2024. Burial was in the Ducheneaux Cemetery.

Candace Idita Ducheneaux was the daughter of Frank Douglas Ducheneaux I and Ellen “Babe” Winnifred Claymore and granddaughter of Henry James Ducheneaux, Josephine Catherine ‘Nellie’ DuBray, John Bazil Claymore and Catherine Carter.

She was born on December 14, 1948, at the Old Cheyenne Agency. She was the youngest child of Frank and Babe. She lived her younger years at the Old Agency, leaving when it was flooded at the age of ten.

She went to school in Eagle Butte, then moved to Dallas, TX with her mother and graduated school there. She returned to Eagle Butte a few years later and met and married Terry Dillabaugh; they had four children, Kyanne, Karen, Burt and Josh.

After their divorce, she moved around a bit for work and went to college in Albuquerque, NM. She moved back to Cheyenne River in 1978, eventually moving to Swift Bird. She left Swift Bird to move to Yellow Thunder Camp in the Black Hills in the early 80’s. There she met Nathan Black Elk and had a son, Luke. She once again returned to the reservation and lived in Armstrong County, Green Grass, Marksville and back to Swift Bird, where she maintained a home until her death.

Candace follows to the stars all of her grandparents; her father Frank; her mother Babe; her hunka mother Dorothy (Buffalo) Strikes Enemy; sisters Luella Nickeson, Joan LeBeau, Karen Nitzschke, and Rochelle Ducheneaux; hunka sisters Fern Hawk Eagle and Bernice Strikes Enemy; brothers James Petruske and Vincent, Bud, John, Wayne, Claire, and Greg Ducheneaux; and special aunties Syble Claymore and Stella Buffalo.

Left behind are her beloved brothers: Franklin and Les Ducheneaux; children Kyanne Dillabaugh, Karen Ducheneaux, Burt Dillabaugh, Josh Dillabaugh, and Luke Black Elk; grandchildren Serena Roy Nunez, Cody Livermont, Rhyley Ducheneaux, McKenna Dillabaugh, WagaCan Ducheneaux, Brendan Dillabaugh, Makaheya Yracheta, Lacey DuPris, Kellen DuPris, Tatiye Topa Oiyahpeya Ducheneaux, Osina Dillabaugh, Wacinyeya Iwas’aka Yracheta, Josh Riley Dillabaugh II, Wawikiya Cik’ala Black Elk, Ashton Smith, James Allen, and Pizi Oyate; great-grandchildren Mahpiya Waste Win, Wicahpi Etan U Win, Ky, Zayden, Noah, Orion, Andrew, Jaxson, Jameson and Adelyn.

Candace also leaves behind many relatives including her beloved older cousin Carol Emery and her longtime sister/friend Charlotte Black Elk, Luce Funeral Home of Gettysburg was in charge of arrangements.