Helena Elizabeth (“Betty”) [nee Printz] EricksonJanuary 15, 1933 to December 4, 2010At about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 4, 2010, Betty Erickson died unexpectedly of apparent natural causes at her beloved home — which she shared with Don, her husband of nearly 60 years — on Radar Hill Road seven miles southeast of Rapid City, South Dakota.Betty died precisely as her family members recollect her saying she always wanted — at home, quickly, at peace with the world and her place in it, with her dignity, her mobility, and all her mental faculties in tact. Nine days earlier she was joyful at preparing and serving Thanksgiving dinner for her husband and her sons and their spouses. On her last afternoon, son Lyle drove Betty to Spearfish for a happy visit with her sister Florence. Lyle describes her demeanor during the return trip as “cheerful and glowing”. She returned home at 4:15 and was observed at 5:15 sitting at her dinette table reading a newspaper. Less than twenty-five minutes later she was discovered collapsed and unresponsive on the floor next to the chair on which she had been sitting.Betty was born in a home of pieced-together homestead shacks on her parents’ homestead ranch southeast of Enning in Meade County, South Dakota.Betty was:■ daughter of Ed and Dama [nee Trask] Printz;■ sister of Virgil Edward Printz (1921, died at age 14 days) and Florence Louise [nee Printz] Fenner (1923);■ wife of Donald David Erickson (1929);■ mother of Kenneth James (1954, life partner Thomas B. Cinefro), Duane Donald (1957), Lyle Edward (1959, wife Marli), and Craig David (1969, wife Tanya);■ grandmother of John Erickson (wife Codi), Grant Erickson, and Kayla Kottke;■ great-grandmother of John & Codi’s children Sheldon, Logan, Chloe, and new baby Trenton;■ aunt to Larry Fenner (wife Vi), Janice [nee Fenner] Haupt (husband Jim), and the late Carla Fenner.■ In addition, son Craig’s friend of thirty-five years and longtime vital employee of the shop, Todd Craig, was considered by Betty as her “fifth son” and her sons regard him as one of the brothers.With the exception of her parents Ed & Dama, her brother Virgil, and her niece Carla, Betty is survived by all the above.Betty was a child of the “Dirty Thirties” and, consequently, had a life-long proclivity for thrift and economy. One of her life tenets was “make do or do without”. She grew up on her parents’ hard-scrabble dry‑land homestead farm/ranch in the river breaks west and north of the Belle Fourche River. To get to elementary school at Boneita Springs, it was a nine-mile trek via dirt-rut road in the family’s rickety old International truck, a trip that could not be made frequently; consequently, Ed and Dama were obliged to board her out with families of other students including her lifelong friends the Hayes family.As an adult Betty seemed to think of herself as plain during childhood; regardless, she developed into what those who knew her would consider to be a pretty young woman. During high school she lived with her sister Florence and attended high school in Rapid City. In the autumn of 1949, her friends Dolores and Audrey arranged for Betty a “half-blind” date with Dolores’ brother Don (“half-blind” in that Betty was in on the plan but Don wasn’t!). In 1951 Betty graduated from Rapid City High School and married Don on April 21. Don was drafted into the Army and Betty joined him for awhile in Columbia, South Carolina. She returned to Rapid City while Don was stationed in Germany. During high school Betty worked in Rapid City for the Harms photography studio; upon return from South Carolina, she worked in a doctor’s office.In 1958, after living inside Rapid City since they were married, Betty and Don purchased their initial five-acre spread southeast of Rapid City, built a home, and moved “out of town”. She filled her time being mother to three young and school-age sons in the 1960s and to the fourth son added in 1969 and with being wife, bookkeeper, and indispensable business partner to Don. In 1970 Don relinquished his day job in town and he and Betty established Don’s Custom Cabinet Shop.Among other interests, Betty loved her home, husband, and sons, her ranching heritage, yard and garden work, noting the weather in her diary, and observation of wildlife, above all birds (for which she kept constantly-filled feeders) with a particular affinity for pheasants. She greatly enjoyed Agatha Christie novels. She cherished cooking for her family (and anyone else she could “arm-twist” into staying for supper!) in quantities far greater than could be consumed by the people present. She treasured the broad range of items Don made for her from the large varieties of wood with which he worked in the shop and their home became a showplace for wood assortments from around the world. She collected a diversity of items and knickknacks including souvenir spoons, carnival glass, homesteader tools, lanterns, Western memorabilia, and sun-tinted purple glass. Beginning in the early 1980s, Betty and Don took an interest in automobile restoration and over the course of three decades participated in nineteen national vintage automobile tours.Betty prized and prominently displayed photographs of ancestors, relatives, and descendants. Betty relished the biennial Printz Family reunions and she and Don for more than sixty years were especially close to Betty’s cousins — whom she considered as close as brothers — John Linn (wife Jean), Jim Linn, and Marty Printz (wife Shirley who, in fact, was a nurse on duty at the birth of Betty’s oldest son Ken).Exemplary of her wisdom, over the past two decades Betty adapted and transitioned to the realities of modern-day family that were far different from the concept of “family” prevalent when she was young. She largely overcame her earlier precept of “skeletons should remain in their closets”.Betty always said that from a young age she wanted four sons (modeled, presumably, after a favorite Aunt Emma Linn and the fact that Emma had four sons). Don recollects that on Father’s Day, 2010, subtly, as was her nature, Betty thanked him by saying “Well, you gave me my four sons!”. However, it may be noted that, as they were growing up, when they deserved it — although sometimes not when they really did deserve it — she judiciously used her special “spanking stick” on her sons, teaching lessons they warranted and subsequently never forgot. Throughout childhood and even more so into their mature adulthood, she loved her sons intensely and to her dying day she knew each of them loved her back equally.Burial will be at Elm Springs Cemetery where Betty will be surrounded by her mother Dama and father Ed, her paternal grandparents Andrew & Johanna Printz, her maternal grandmother Elizabeth Trask, and numerous other beloved relatives.Goodbye and farewell, wonderful lady, with all our love and deep gratitude for your time on Earth,Don, Ken & Thomas, Duane, Lyle & Marli, Craig & Tanya, and all your other loved ones.