Hope Cecile Vig

Hope Cecile Vig was born July 26, 1938 in Faith, SD, to Cecil and Edith (Weiss) Vig and grew up on the family ranch near Opal.  As a young girl, she helped milk the family milk cow, Harriet, and gather eggs from the chicken coop with her sister, Rose.  During chore time, she enjoyed scaring her sister and making her scream with various pranks.  She attended Vig School and Tama School for her elementary years.  Hope started high school in Faith, went to Newell for two years, and graduated from Sturgis High School in 1956.  She always liked to joke that she was the mal-adjusted middle child.  Hope attended nursing school at Denver University and was capped at St. Luke’s hospital in Denver.  She then went on and got her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Black Hills State College in Spearfish, SD.  Her first teaching position was in Powell, WY and she also taught in Wickenburg, Arizona; Rainier, Oregon; and Anchorage, Alaska.  While teaching fifth grade in Anchorage, she got her Master’s Degree and also taught education courses at the college.  Her hands on classroom lessons and activities were inspired by aviation and ranching.  She even flew the bones of a bull that died on the ranch up to Anchorage to use in her classroom.

In 1971, she began learning how to fly and quickly progressed gaining certifications and ratings.  She was a flight instructor and ferried single engine airplanes from South Dakota to Alaska many times.  She drove the Alaska Highway taking vehicles up to Anchorage which she would eventually sell before coming back to South Dakota to do it again another year.

She enjoyed traveling and was a chaperone for a student trip to Europe.  Hope also was able to visit Norway with her sisters, Faith and Rosie and niece, Michelle. 

Hope was a teacher, a servant, an adventurer, and a hero to many young women.  She could fly, teach, drive a swather, and ride a horse.  Every summer she came back home to the ranch to help with the AI’ing and putting up hay as she drove a Hesston swather. 

She was a faithful follower of Christ and lived her entire life as a loving servant.  Hope was generous with her time as a Bible Class teacher and was generous with her finances supporting children’s homes, missionaries, local families, and community organizations.  She gave of her time by providing care for her father, mother, and brother in their aging years. 

Hope passed away at her home with her family on October 26, 2021 at the age of 83. 

She is survived by her sisters, Faith Miller and Rose Tysdal, and brother, Dwayne (Zona) Vig; sister-in-law, Adelia Vig; two aunts, Joyce Baker and Kay Weiss; twenty nieces and nephews; and numerous great nieces and nephews.

Hope was proceeded in death by her parents, Cecil and Edith Vig; brother, Merle; uncles and aunts, Glen Weiss, Clair (Dorothy) Weiss, Dorwin (Hope) Weiss, Wayne (Carol) Vig, Kenny (Dagny) Vig, Art (Maureen) Vig, Cleone (Gene) Austin; brothers-in-law, Ronald Miller and Tony Tysdal.

Visitation for Hope will be held from 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm on Thursday, November 4, 2021, at the Opal Church. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 am on Friday, November 5, 2021 at the Faith Community Center in Faith, SD.

Memorials have been established to the Mountain States Children’s Home and the Opal Volunteer Fire Department.