August 8, 1938 – March 3, 2025
Mass of Christian Burial for Emma Lu (Johnson) Reeves, 86, of Eagle Butte was held on March 11, 2025, at All Saints Catholic Church in Eagle Butte. Burial was at Mossman Cemetery under the direction of Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge. Emma Lu passed away Monday, March 3, 2025, at her home.
She was born on August 8, 1938, to Chauncy and Edith (Pearman) Johnson at the old Cheyenne River Agency, the youngest of six children. She grew up on her parents’ ranch on Bear Creek. She attended the Immaculate Conception Mission School in Stephan, a boarding school, through the 8th grade. She attended high school in Timber Lake and graduated in 1957.
After graduation, she attended Black Hills State University majoring in Physical Science. She was an advanced swimmer, and taught swimming, as well as having her lifeguard qualifications. Emma Lu taught her children and many of her grandchildren to swim, and helped teach her great-grandchildren too.
During high school she met Arthur Dean Reeves; they were married on June 8, 1958, in Rapid City. They lived with friends and relatives until Emma Lu acquired Range Unit #10. Dean purchased a house for $500 and they moved to Armstrong County on the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Acquiring this unit and holding it for 60 years was one of her greatest honors as a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.
In 1974, the family moved into a new house but still had to haul water because Tri County Water couldn’t get out that far.
Emma Lu and her husband were lifelong members of the American Quarter Horse Association, active breeders, and used the horses they raised to work their ranch.
Emma Lu worked as a teacher’s aide for 8 years in the Eagle Butte schools. She assisted her husband and hired men in the hay fields when needed. Some years she would feed up to 50 bum calves purchased to train the horses she and Dean would sell.
There were very few days when she wouldn’t cook for 8 or more people three times a day. Many days she cooked for twenty plus people 3 times a day, especially during the 14 years of their production sale. She made bread every Saturday and washed clothes with a wringer washer. She cooked dinner for 20 plus people during brandings, the bronc riding school at her ranch this past October, and in recent years for the Bible School in town.
Emma Lu is most noted for her ability to endure the hardest of times, never shirking on a task that needed to be done. These were courageous attributes she tried to instill in her children and grandchildren. The children at the ranch each summer also included her nieces and nephews, Bobbi Lee, Frankie Lu, CL, Kirk, Floyd, Teckla, Teresa, and Edie, Karen, Kimmy, Kay, Michael, Kathleen, Colleen, Don, David, and Pat.
She took care of her sister Evelyn while she suffered from dementia, and she also took care of her father in his last years of his life.
Emma Lu loved her cattle and horses, her trees, her yard, and would worry about getting the hay in for the winter ahead. She was an avid walker.
In her last years of life, she wanted to restore her ranch to how it was through the years, a working cattle ranch, and build her horse herd.
Emma Lu loved watching her children compete in rodeos and enjoyed attending barrel races with her daughter, Mary. She also never missed any one of her son Tom’s 18 National Finals Rodeos.
She is preceded in death by her husband Arthur Dean Reeves; parents Chauncey and Edith Johnson; sisters Ellabelle Tomlin, Elizabeth Brooks, and Evelyn O’ Leary; brother Curley Johnson; in-laws Arthur and Frankie Reeves; and beloved friend and ranch hand Scope Yellowhead.
She is survived by her sister Eda Reno of Wright, WY; children Jim (Jana) Reeves of Midland, Bobbi (Paul) Palczewski of Ludlow, Mary (Wade) Mitzel of Sundance, WY, and Tom (Casey) Reeves of Eagle Butte; grandchildren Jessie (Rocky) Longbrake, Carla (Renee) Van Oers, Paul Thomas (Brandie) Palczewski, Chris (Kelsey) Reeves, Cal (Tori) Reeves, Samantha (Stewart) Terry, Jordon Reeves, Hailey (Michael) Taylor, Beau Mitzel, Estel Reeves, Kade (Shelby) Reeves, Zane Reeves, Ruffian Reeves, Katherine Reeves, Lindy Lu Reeves, Layla Reeves and Emma Mary Reeves; 14 great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews; and too many friends to mention.
Memorials will go to Wild Horses Building Champions Inc., PO Box 466, Eagle Butte, SD 57625, the youth program she helped her son with since its incorporation in 2018.