Beverly "Bev" Mickelson

Beverly Kaye Mickelson (ne Allison), 11. January 1947 – 13. November 2025.
Beverly Kaye Mickelson died at Avera Prairie Center in Sioux Falls on Thursday evening, 13. November, 2025. Visitation for all friends, students, and relatives will be from 5-7 pm, Friday, 21. November, 2025 at the First United Methodist Church in Pierre. A service filled with music, stories, prayer, and holy communion will follow at 7:00 pm. The funeral in celebration of her life of service will be held at 3:00 pm in the church on Saturday, 22. November, 2025. Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery. Click Here For Livestream- Prayer Service Click Here For Livestream- Funeral Service
It was just this last week Beverly was JUST playing the piano and working on bell, organ, and choir music.
Who was this woman, fluent in at least four languages: English, German, Music, and Stitchery?
Beverly was born in Winner, South Dakota to Charles A. (Al) Allison and Leota V. (ne Ticknor) Allison on January 11, 1947. Growing up in a small town with her dad and mom owning Winner Gas & Electric, a store with "everything for the home." Hers was a delightful childhood, except for one night with dad, Al, on a farm call, Bev was bitten by a dog, and in that era rabies shots were in the abdomen and felt like liquid fire. Otherwise, it was a fun time filled with piano lessons, her nose constantly in books, and a great education in the Winner school system. By the eighth grade she was beginning to play worship services at the Methodist Church. Highschool brought flute and marching band and a great German teacher.
USD at Vermillion offered German and French studies along with marching and concert bands as well as countless hours in Slagle's practice rooms, further mastering piano and flute. The sorority brought lifetime sisterly contacts. A couple of summers there were jobs in the tourist town of Rockerville in the Black Hills. In 1968 Beverly and Jay (no romance yet) attended the Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik (the German summer school on the Pacific). Friendships, beyond their own, made there are enduring to this day. Practice teaching in the German language saw Beverly in Pierre, and that never changed. At all state choir in 1969 Jay asked Bev if she'd like a practice teacher in German that next spring. Her reply, "Jay, I haven't been through the book yet myself!" Nevertheless, Jay had to come to Pierre, for it was the only school in the state left with both German and Latin classes. She devoted other summers to travel and study in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Bev also made trips to Oak Creek Ranch near McLaughlin learning how to milk cows, and Jay helped at the Winner store learning how to lay carpet.
By 1974 wedding plans were set for June 29. My was it hot that day, though it was the coolest 24 hours that week! After a wedding trip to Winnipeg, Canada and Medora, North Dakota, they settled down to build a life in Pierre: Monday Musicale for a while, Methodist Church Choir, Soloing, Accompanying, and Pierre Players, plus a special benefit production to help build the YMCA. Then the couple bought the house at 236 W. Prospect Ave. and moved in during a blizzard on the coldest day of the year, during the Feast of the Holy Epiphany in 1977. Allison Janell arrived on March 25 that year to make a little bigger family. Upgrades never ceased on the residence and parenting and teaching and music consumed all their time. Jay would cook and Bev would give piano and flute lessons elsewhere, but never out of ear shot.
Teaching combined with a new baby -- Bev stated, "I just can't keep up." Jay answered, "Do what you need to do." It was then that Bev became office manager for the South Dakota National Guard in Pierre. What a great choice for all. This new position led to many wonderful new connections within the Guard community. Andrew Rex-Thomas arrived October 16, 1979. "His sleeping habits were worrisome – never sleeping through the night but once until he was three." Soon the kids were in school. And then in 1986/7 Bev and Jay and Allison and Drew became a Fulbright exchange family near Hamburg, Germany where Jay taught at a Gymnasium (college prep high school) and Bev got to be a stay-at-home mom and housewife. After a year, they came back to Pierre to continue where they left off: music, the SDNG, kids, grade school, Junior High, Riggs, cheerleading, chorus, band, plays, hockey, etc. etc. ad infinitum. After the maturing children were off to university, Europe, and tech college, did it slow down? NO! Bev was invited to Governor Rounds's (a former German student) office to be his receptionist, and she retired when he left office. With retirement she became a master gardener, a member of prairie potters and joined the card writing ministry at the church More music, more plays, and Alaskan & Canadian cruises, with LOTS of cross stitching (What a master she became there!) Then the handwritten letters every week for those whom she dearly loved.
The letters in English and German have ceased. The piano music has stopped. And the cross-stitch needles have been put away. Jay will sorely miss the hours of Bev's practicing in the "piano room".
Mourning her loss are: her mother Leota V. Allison, Ft. Pierre; her husband of 51 years, Jay; her daughter Allison and her partner Jim Speirs, Sioux Falls; her son Andrew and his wife Nicole (nee Taylor) of Conde, with their four children Taylor (9), Aubree (6), Logan (4), and Emma (2); and manifold relatives and friends flung across the U.S. and the world.
Beverly was preceded in death by her father Al, Winner; her younger brother Doug and his wife Kathy, Indianapolis, IN and her dear friend Mary Jo Johnson.
The family requests that memorials be directed to the E Jay and Beverly Kaye Scholarship Fund at the South Dakota Community Foundation. 2310 Patron Pkwy, Pierre, SD, 57501. sdcommunityfoundation.org (605)224-1025.