Donald Edgar

Donald J. Edgar, 93, of Orient, passed away Saturday, March 5, 2022, at Community Memorial Hospital, Redfield. 

Funeral Mass will be held 10:30 a.m., Monday, March 14, 2022, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Orient, with Father Randy Phillips presiding. Burial will be in St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery, Orient. A wake service will be 5:00 p.m., Sunday, March 13, 2022 at the church. Visitation with the family will be from 1:30–4:00 p.m. Sunday at the Community Hall in Orient and one hour prior to the wake at the church.

Donald “Fudd” James Edgar was born May 6, 1928 to Waldo P. and Mary (Aesoph) Edgar. He joined older brother Richard. According to Donald, his mom went into labor while at a movie in Orient. They lived on a farm NE of Orient for a couple years before moving to a place south of Redfield called Twin Lakes. In 1941 the family moved to their new place NW of Rockham. Some of Donald’s favorite childhood memories were swimming endlessly in the homemade pool from the overflow of the wells to the lake and “ranch rodeoing” with the neighbor kids while their parents were gone to town shopping and trading. He remembers his mom making the best fried chicken, helping in her huge garden, and watching her sweep up inches of dust from all the dust storms of the 30’s with her dustpan and turkey wing sweeper.

In 1934 Donald started school in a one room schoolhouse with 28 kids, 5 of whom were named Donald. He continued his education in Rockham and graduated from Orient High School in 1947. While in Orient he boarded with Josie Baloun. He worked at the grocery store as a butcher. When the butchering business was slow, he would build mink traps for his trapping business. He also did custom baling and plowing. In 1946 he bought a Model B car for $60. It quickly became known as the “Fuddmobile”, a source of many good times.

November 16, 1953, he married Dolores Pottebaum in Orient. They settled on the home place east of Orient where they started a family. Donald and Dolores lovingly raised10 kids. In order to keep everyone busy they farmed, raised pigs and sheep, butchered beef and chickens, and started milking cows. Donald also raised mink for the Hudson Bay Fur Company. In 1978 he bought the Bud Yada place and moved the milk cow herd there. He was able to stop using the old swing buckets and advanced to a pipeline system making the work much more manageable.

Tragically in 1982 his first love, Dolores, passed away after a short bout with colon cancer. He was so grateful for the love and support of his family, friends, and neighbors. He needed a distraction, so he started dabbling in exotic animals: llamas, rhea birds, peacocks, zebra, and longhorns to name a few. Soon after the High Hope Llama ranch was started.

Donald was blessed to find love again. He married Kathy (Remily) Kindle in 1987. They lived on the farm by Orient before moving to the Black Hills in 1993. They kept busy raising some breeding ewes, operating a small haying business, raising miniature ponies, and running the High Hope Horse Camp. They truly had found their own little piece of paradise. After 21 years in the Hills, Fudd and Kathy moved back home and settled in Orient. Sadly, the second love of his life, Kathy, passed away in April of 2019.

Donald was a quiet, gentle soul with deep faith that loved his family very much. Nothing made him more proud than to have everyone gather in the Hills. He loved showing off the sites. He also had a mischievous side to him, and he was very quick- witted. His hearing deficit was his biggest obstacle that kept him from attending large gatherings.  Donald will always be remembered for his inventiveness; creating a tire turning machine to make feed bunks, the Ferris wheel he built for his grandkids, a pony ring for Old McDonald’s Farm in Rapid City, and his homemade trap that successfully captured the mountain lion that was wreaking havoc on his geese.  He loved gardening, NASCAR races, exotic animal auctions, satisfying his sweet tooth, writing his version of “Cowboy Poetry”, Wheel of Fortune and cruising the streets of Orient with his sidekick Pixie in his “Whoopie”.

Honored to have shared in his life are his children: Dennis, Lakewood CO, Dean (Beth), Orient SD, Jeanine (Rodney) Laabs, Brookings SD, Tim (Rosario), Sinai SD, Jane (Bruce) McCloud, Highmore SD, Terry (Tam), Elk Point SD, Tom (Liz), Orient SD, Jim (Tanya), Chesterland OH, and  Joel, Lead SD; step children: Stephanie (Gerry) Snyder, East China MI, Matthew (Lilibeth) Kindle, Keystone Heights FL, Charlene (Steve) Shawd, Leo IN; 27 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; 7 step grandchildren; 14 step great-grandchildren; brother, Doug Edgar, Redfield SD; sisters: Donna Hiles, Spearfish SD and Kathy Nowell, Redfield SD; brother-in-law, Ray Pottebaum, Miller SD; sisters-in-law: Norma Miller, Faulkton SD, Elaine Joyce, Alexandria MN, Cele (Frank) King, Sioux Falls SD, Diane Muellenberg, Redfield SD,  Marcia (Joe) Murray WA, and Sylvia Remily, OR.

Donald was preceded in death by his parents, Waldo and Mary; wives, Dolores and Kathy; son, Jerald; grandchildren: Tasha Edgar, Derek Rogers and Aaron Laabs; brother, Dick and his wife Mary Angela; sister, Mary Lou and her husband Richard; brothers-in-law: Donald Hiles, Clifford Nowell, Robert Miller, Pat Joyce, David Muellenberg, and David Remily.

Luce Funeral Home of Faulkton has been entrusted with Don’s arrangements.