This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/0gB.2ACI/310 Message Board Post: From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, dated Tuesday, March 5, 1940 page 4 Typed just as it appeared in original paper, including any/all typos. Willis Stearns, 84, Dies at Home Here Willis J. Stearns, pioneer of the Valley Springs, SD., vicinity and a resident of Sioux Falls since 1935, Died Monday night at his home, 827 South Spring ave., after an illness of four weeks. He was 84 years old. Funeral services will be held at 2o'clock Wednesday afternoon in the Federated church at Valley Springs and burial will be made in the Pleasant View cemetery there. Born January 17, 1856 in Cornwall, Vt., he lived there until 17 years old when he moved to Rock County, Minn. He was married at Beaver Creek, Minn., in 1884. His wife, the former Gertrude Pinney, died in 1934. Survivors include seven children, Mrs. Alice Gibson, Mabel, Marjorie, Herbert and Harry Stearns, all of Sioux Falls; Mrs. Florence Berke, Britton, S. D., and Alan Stearns, Huron. There are 10 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, one sister, Mrs. May Pinney of Valley Springs, and one brother, Charles, of Oklahoma City. Volunteer Posting