Emma Lu Reeves

Mass of Christian Burial for Emma Lu Reeves, 86, of Eagle Butte was held Tuesday, March 11, 2025, at All Saints Catholic Church in Eagle Butte. Burial followed at Mossman Cemetery under the direction of Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge. 

Emma Lu Reeves (Johnson) (No Heart Woman), 86, of Eagle Butte, SD passed away peacefully in her home on Monday, March 3, 2025. Emma Lu was born on August 7, 1938, to Chauncy and Edith (Pearman) Johnson at the Cheyenne River Old Agency. Emma Lu was the youngest of 6 children and the youngest daughter. She grew up on her parent’s ranch on Bear Creek. She attended the Immaculate Conception Mission School, in Stephan, SD, a Boarding School, through the 8th grade; she attended high school in Timber Lake, SD. She graduated in 1957. After graduation, she attended Black Hills State University majoring in Physical Science. She was an advanced swimmer, and taught swimming, as well as having her lifeguard qualifications. Emma Lu taught her children, and many of her grandchildren to swim, even helped teach her great grandchildren, too. She also taught her youngest 5 grand- daughters to dance.

During high school she met Arthur Dean Reeves, they were married on June 8, 1958, in Rapid City, SD. They lived with friends and relatives until Emma Lu acquired Range Unit #10. Dean purchased a house for $500 and moved to Armstrong County on the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Acquiring this unit and holding it for 60 years was one of her greatest honors as a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.  

In 1974, the family moved into a new house but still had to haul water because Tri County Water couldn’t get out that far.

Her and her husband were lifelong members of the American Quarter Horse Association, active breeders, and used the horses they raised to work their ranch.

Emma Lu worked as a teachers aid for 8 years through the Title One program in the Eagle Butte schools. She assisted her husband and hired men in the hay fields when needed. Some years she would feed up to 50 bum calves purchased to train the horses her and Dean would sell in the sale.

There were very few days when she wouldn’t cook for 8 plus people, 3 times a day. There were many days in which she cooked for twenty plus people 3 times a day, especially during the 14 years of her and Dean’s production sale. She made bread every Saturday and washed clothes with a ringer washer.

When taking her children and grandchildren to the river to swim she would make fried chicken. Even after the sale and working ranch days, she cooked dinner for 20 plus people during brandings, the bronc riding school at her ranch this past October, and in recent years for the Bible School in town.

Emma Lu is most noted for her ability to endure the hardest of times, never shirking on a task that needed to be done; these were courageous attributes she tried to instill in her children and grandchildren.

Every summer she would have at least four of her grandchildren at any given time. She swam with them, rode horses, and taught them to clean and cook. The children that consumed the ranch each summer also included her beloved nieces and nephews, Bobbi Lee, Frankie Lu, CL, Kirk, Floyd, Teckla, Teresa, and Edie, Karen, Kimmy, Kay, Michael, Kathleen, Colleen, Don, David, and Pat.

She took care of her sister Evelyn while she suffered from dementia, and she also took care of her father in the last years of his life.

She loved her cattle and horses, her trees (she was always planting trees), her yard, and would worry about getting the hay in for the winter ahead. She was an avid walker.

In her last years of  life, she wanted to restore her ranch to how it was through the years, a working cattle ranch, and regrow her horse herd.

Emma Lu loved watching her children compete in rodeos and still enjoyed attending barrel races with her daughter, Mary. She also never missed any one of her son Tom’s 18 National Finals Rodeos.

She is preceded in death by her husband Arthur Dean Reeves, her parents Chauncey and Edith Johnson,  sisters Ellabelle Tomlin, Elizabeth Brooks, Evelyn O’ Leary,  brother Curley Johnson, in-laws, Arthur and Frankie Reeves,  and Dean’s beloved friend and ranch hand Scope Yellowhead.

She is survived by her sister Eda Reno, of Wright, Wyoming; children, Jim (Jana) Reeves, of Midland, SD, Bobbi (Paul) Palczewski of Ludlow, SD, Mary (Wade) Mitzel of Sundance, Wyoming, Tom (Casey) Reeves, Eagle Butte, SD;  her grandchildren, Jessie (Rocky) Longbrake, of Dupree, SD, Carla (Renee) Van Oers of Austin, Texas, Paul Thomas (Brandie) Palczewski of Ludlow, SD, Chris (Kelsey) Reeves of Philip, SD, Cal (Tori) Reeves of Mobridge, SD, Samantha (Stewart) Terry of Brisbane, Australia, Jordon Reeves of Midland, SD, Hailey (Michael) Taylor of Austin, TX, Beau Mitzel of SD, Estel Reeves of Toledo, Ohio, Kade (Shelby) Reeves of Pierre, SD, Zane Reeves of Toledo, Ohio, Ruffian Reeves, Katherine Reeves, Lindy Lu Reeves, Layla Reeves and Emma Mary Reeves of Eagle Butte; 14 great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews and too many friends to mention.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Wild Horses Building Champions Inc., Post Office Box 466, Eagle Butte, South Dakota 57625, the youth program she helped her son with since its incorporation in 2018.