H. Gladine McGirr Boschee

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Gladine Boschee, 93, of Highmore, died March 8, 2020 at Highmore Health, Highmore, where she resided for seven years.

Funeral service was held at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, March 14, 2020 at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Highmore with Rev. Sara C. Kayser officiating.  Burial follwed at the Wessington Cemetery.  Visitation was held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Friday, March 13, 2020 with a 7:00 p.m., time of sharing, all at Luze Funeral Home, Highmore.

Harriet Gladine Vaughn McGirr Boschee was born on a farm near Vayland, South Dakota on December 14, 1926 to Cort and Harriet Martha (Hutchinson) Vaughn. She attended rural schools and graduated from Wessington High School in 1944.

Her teaching career started at the age of 17 due to a teacher shortage during World War II. In 1947 she married WWII veteran Gerald McGirr and their first home was at the Sand Creek School south of Wessington where Gladine taught and Gerald was the bus driver. They later moved to a farm north of Wessington where two daughters, LaVaughn and Kay, were born. In the fall of 1956, the family moved to Highmore where Gerald began his career with Sully Buttes Telephone Company (Venture Communications). Gladine lived at 212 Second Street in Highmore for 56 years.

She worked at the Red Owl Store until the winter of 1957 when she began her Hyde County teaching career midyear in Highmore Elementary, followed by rural schools, Pratt and Douglas. In 1963 she started two decades of teaching sixth grade at Highmore Elementary. She attended many summer sessions at Northern State College in Aberdeen, earning her bachelor’s degree in education. Her favorite teaching memories are the students’ South Dakota history books and making bulletin boards. Over the years Gladine’s favorite moments were when students came to visit and talk about their memories of her classroom including the poem Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way.  Gladine retired from full time teaching in 1983, and continued to substitute for another decade. She had wanted to be a teacher for as long as she could remember.

She was an officer in American Legion Auxiliary, PEO and the Methodist Church in Highmore where she led the choir.  Her strong faith began at the Presbyterian Church in Wessington and after marrying Mel Boschee in 1999, she became a member of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Highmore.  She was one of the founders of the Hyde County Scholarship Foundation and believed that education was the best medicine.  In 2019 Gladine was the Highmore Health Snow Queen.

Gladine’s family loved her dimpled smile, her knitted hats and scarves, her piano playing, her dill pickles and sense of adventure from Alaska to China with stops in Russia, Germany and just about everywhere. Her family will always remember her playing the South Dakota Meadowlark on her grandmother Hutchinson’s piano. She wrote dozens of poems for community celebrations and read them out loud for entertainment. For years she hosted the senior breakfast and the Mother Daughter banquet.  She was a hostess, an emcee, a teacher and a very fun lady.

She is survived by her daughters, H. LaVaughn (Jan) Busse of Highmore and Kay (Tom) Cady of Wayzata, MN; her sister, Joan Gross of San Rafael, CA; she adored her grandchildren: H. Lisa (Jason) Haverly, Stephanie (Doug) Kittleson, Amanda Joan (Jayson) Gesme, Danika (Jesse) Johnson, Miles (Katie) Cady, and Mitchell (Kristi) Cady; her great-grandchildren: William, Addisu, Caleb, Elijah, H. Lyla, Lars, Liv, Julia, Alice, Grace, Claire, and Gladine’s namesake, Harriet.

Gladine was preceded in death by her husbands, Gerald McGirr (1988) and Melvin Boschee (2013); her parents; and brothers; Robert and Vincent.

Gladine’s family is grateful for the care at Highmore Health.

Luze Funeral Home of Highmore has been entrusted with Gladine’s arrangements.