Beverly Buchholz

Beverly Dawn Ward was born on September 11, 1943 in Deadwood, SD to Edna May and John Ward. Now she celebrates her birthday a week early because it is too sad for her to celebrate on 9/11. Her oldest brother is only 14 months older than her and his name is Frank. Dorothy and Clark are her younger sister and brother. She met her sweetheart, Bill Buchholz, in high school and they were married two months after graduation. She has three sons and six grandchildren.

She grew up on a dairy farm and loved to play outside. Her favorite things were to play cowboys and Indians and make mud pies. She absolutely despised playing dolls. She was jealous of her aunt and cousins because they had a television and Bev’s family didn’t get their T.V. until she was thirteen years old.

Her Grandma and Grandpa Russell moved to Spearfish to be closer to their grandkids, but one summer they took Bev and her siblings back to their ranch for the summer. This was one of her fondest memories.

When she was in elementary school, she attended the Lab School named the Normal School. This was a school just for country kids. She attended the Lab School from kindergarten through eighth grade. They had swimming, dancing…with partners, and track. At recess she loved to play Nancy Drew and solve mysteries. Her and her friend, Sheryl, also liked to play football at recess, but they got into trouble because football was just for boys. Bev did not think this was fair!

One of Bev’s biggest concerns when she was younger was when she had to drive her Dad’s big grain truck up and down the Belle Fourche River Hill delivering the grain. She didn’t have her license yet, but the police officer told her she didn’t need one because she was such a good driver. She was scared to death, but it all turned out just fine. After she did actually get her license she owned a Chevy car and didn’t realize you had to put oil in it…but that’s another story.

Bev’s mom thought she should go to medical school because she loved dissecting frogs and all that gross stuff, but her path led her to become a teacher. Bev was a second grade teacher for 23 years and is still substituting because she absolutely loves kids.

Her favorite music is of course Elvis and country western. She attended Elvis’s last concert in Rapid City and loved it!

She confesses that the one thing that drives her husband nuts is when they travel; she always wants to stop and look at EVERYTHING! But eventually they do make it to their destination even though Bill thinks they never will.

The most important things Bev feels she has accomplished in her life are having a family and raising three loving sons, being a grandmother to six terrific grandchildren, earning a college degree, and teaching.

When asked what her philosophy for life is, she said to “Live by the Standards,” and WORK, WORK, WORK; we can’t expect others to take care of us. Her experience is that God’s principles work really well and it doesn’t pay to create your own rules. She believes in always doing the right thing and being strong enough to stand up for your beliefs. She works to change what she’s able to change.