Pearl Shoemaker, age 99, of Howard, died Friday, April 30, 2010 at the Howard Good Samaritan Center. Funeral services will be 11:00 AM Wednesday, May 5th at the Will Funeral Chapel with burial at the Fedora Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 PM Tuesday at Will Funeral Chapel.
Pearl (Moore) Shoemaker was born May 2nd 1910, Creighton, Nebraska to Albert and Dora (Myers) Moore. Pearl attended school at Fedora for about 10 years. She met Harold at a social and they were married July 3rd, 1929 in Mitchell SD. They farmed at various locations around Artesian from 1929-1941. They then gave up farming and moved into Artesian for about a year, by then WWII had started. They then moved to Battleground Washington where Harold drove trucks and later to Vancouver Washington and in 1948 back home to South Dakota where Harold ran the county road grader. The couple had 7 children. Pearl operated a lunch counter at the sale barn in Artesian for a couple of years and worked at various restaurants in Artesian. She was mostly a stay at home mom. She did a lot of canning for her family, made most of her bread and some of the best cookies and cinnamon rolls ever made. She loved gadgets and In her pre-nursing home days she had quite a collection of baby dolls that she sewed for and loved to dress up.
She is survived by 4 children: Richard Shoemaker (Eleanor) of Bennett, CO; Shirley Stewart (Bob) of Custer, SD; Denis Shoemaker of Caldwell, ID; Doris Bates (Howard) of Sieverville, TN. 17 grandchildren, numerous great-grandchildren, great great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her husband Harold, 3 children: a son Doyle in 1945, a son Warner at birth, and a daughter Joyce in 2004. Also 1 sister and 5 brothers, 4 grandchildren: Pam Stewart Ortman, Larry Jensen, Cindy Sands and Steven Shoemaker.