To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the South Dakota Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in South Dakota, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 1/26/21 • Approved: 1/26/21 • Last Updated: 1/29/21 • R271930-G271930-S3
Birth 21 Aug 1910
Davenport, Scott County, Iowa, USA
Death 9 Feb 2009 (aged 98)
Kalispell, Flathead County, Montana, USA
Vern W. McConnell, 98, of Kallispell, Montana and formerly of Flandreau, died on Monday, February 9, 2009 at Immanuel Lutheran Home there.
Vern McConnell was born August 21, 1910, in Davenport, Iowa to Ralph and Nette McConnell. He was raised in the Davenport area where he finished school in 1928. That summer, while visiting his sister, Irene Warner, in Flandreau he realized how much he liked the town and was offered a job as a printer for the Flandreau Herald newspaper. Vern married Mae Hanson on August 20, 1931. In 1934, the Herald was consolidated with the Moody County Enterprise where Vern worked full time until semiretirement in 1974. For many of those years he traveled to Egan weekly to get their paper out as well. During those years he also built the family home while working six days a week at the paper. He remained part time with the Enterprise until 1985. Vern had a love for golfing. In his “retirement” he and a close friend Harold Schmidt maintained the golf course with a mode and collected lost golf balls.
After the death of his wife Mae, Vern continued to live in Flandreau having coffee at the bakery nearly every morning, then coffee at the Trading Post in the afternoons until 2003, when he moved to Kalispell to be closer to family. He loved it Montana and often commented on the beauty of the area. He never tired of the “scenic drives” his retirement home provided, but also told many stories about the times in South Dakota. He enjoyed traveling throughout the US, golfing, and bird hunting.
Survivors are his son Ron (Sheila) McConnell of Bellevue, Washington, his daughter: Karen (Steve) Panissidi of Bigfork, Montana as well as San Diego, California, six grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
A celebration of life was held at the Kalispell, Seventh Day Adventist Church on February 11.
The family it will bury Vern’s ashes next to Mae in union Cemetery, Flandreau, on July 2 at 11 a.m.
Moody County Enterprise
Flandreau, Moody County, South Dakota
Contributed on 1/26/21
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 271930