Mildred Evelyn Hawks, 83, Plainview, died Wednesday, April 19, 2006, at the South Ridge Health Care Center in Sioux Falls.

Burial was at the Bear Butte Cemetery near Sturgis.

Mildred Wilson was born March 11, 1923, to Charles and Alice (Parker) Wilson at Miller. She attended grade school at South Howell School and high school in Redfield. A year after graduation she took a survey and topographical mapping course at Ames, Iowa. She then attended radio school in Aberdeen for a year. She transferred to Lexington, Ky., to complete radio school. She joined the U.S. Navy and completed basic training in New York City and instrument school in Chicago, Ill. She was stationed in Detroit, Mich., and Jacksonville, Fla., During this time, she worked on airplane instruments until the war ended. She returned to South Dakota in December 1945.

She married Charles Hawks, whom she had met on Pearl Harbor Day, in March 1946 and spent the rest of her life on the ranch at Plainview, until August 2005. She moved to a nursing home in Viborg, and later to Sioux Falls.

Mildred enjoyed reading, baking and gardening. She was a member of the Marcus Presbyterian Church, and actively involved in 4-H, extension club, and a church women's group.

Survivors include her children, Gary Hawks and his wife Connie, Tyndall, Susan Jones and her husband Curtis, Piedmont, Ed Hawks and his wife Gloria, Plainview, and Karen Shade and her husband Al, Davis; grandchildren, Steve and Paula Hawks, Baltic, Stephanie and Casey Sampson, Brookings, Cyndi Braley and fiance Matt Nelson, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Courtney Shade, Davis, and Bryan Braley, Plainview; and great-grandchildren Miranda and Haley Sampson, and Ruby and Tristan Hawks.

Mildred was preceded in death by her husband Charles, her parents, two sisters, and one brother.

Meade County Times-Tribune