Connie Marie Burdick

It is with great sadness that her family announces Connie Marie (Pederson) Burdick passed away on December 22, 2025 after a 9-year battle with Alzheimer's Disease. A Visitation will take place at Eidsness Funeral Home in Brookings on January 16, 2026 from 5-7PM. Internment will be at Greenwood Cemetery in the spring for immediate family only.

Connie was born on October 23, 1941 in Cloquet, Minnesota. The youngest of three children, and the only girl, her mother, (Viola "Vi" Pederson), always joked she was the best oops of her life. Along with her mother, Connie was raised by her father, Harry J. Pederson, the plumber in town who would drop everything to help a friend or neighbor. Her two brothers, Raymond "Pete" and John "Jack", 13 and 10 years her elders, kept Connie protected and loved. Her greatest loves in her early years were music, playing the trombone, golfing, spending time at her parents' cabin on Big Lake, Minnesota, her pets (most notably her dog Stubby) and friends. She was an avid member of the Cloquet High School Marching Band and before her freshman year, her big claim to fame was that she was the only eighth grader to be playing with the high schoolers. Her senior year high school yearbook in 1959 described her as "blonde, tall, and liked by all."

After high school, she drove her prized blue Corvair convertible, and moved to Duluth and worked at St. Mary's hospital, then Minnesota Department of Human and Social Services while enrolled at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. It was during her late night cruising during the summer of 1964 with friends that drew her to a tall, curly, dark haired boy named Gary Burdick, who lived in Foxboro, Wisconsin. Friends set her up on a blind date with him and after that, it was over for them. Gary described it as, "you couldn't miss her. A blonde in a convertible. I was done!" In six months they were engaged and got married in Cloquet on October 9, 1965.

In June, 1969, Connie gave birth to a baby boy (Guy Kristian) and settled into being a working mother while finishing her degree in social work at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Daycare soon became too expensive for the young family and she quit her job to take care of Guy full time while Gary finished his degree, spent time in the Air Guard and worked the bookstore in Duluth. The family spent their free time camping, updating their home in the Lakeside area, and visiting her parents at the lake.

In November, 1975, Connie gave birth to their second child (Greta Marie). Always needing a project to work on, Gary and Connie purchased land in Hermantown, MN, and built a new home in 1978.

In 1983, Gary received an opportunity for a promotion running the bookstore at South Dakota State University and moved the family to Brookings, SD. Connie quickly became involved in the new community and volunteered with the Girl Scouts as a troop leader, and invested her time, talent, and energy in the choir at Brookings Wesleyan Church. Her knack for knowing music earned her a title as Choir Director for over a decade.

Connie went back to work at SDSU and became an Assistant to the Vice President for Administration in 1988 and worked for the university while going back to school to obtain her Masters degree. Shortly after, she took a position at the SDSU Foundation as a Director of Research and finally as a Director of Marketing for a travel agency until her retirement in 2003.

Grandsons came into the picture in 2005, 2007, 2009 and finally a granddaughter in 2013. Connie loved spending time with each of them playing UNO, Sorry, Memory and other games they asked for. She also thrived on traveling around the United States, playing the piano whenever she could and taking photos.

In her early 50s she took up downhill skiing and bought her own motorcycle. She spent multiple winters skiing in Colorado and Lutsen Mountains and summers were spent riding side by side with Gary, including a trip or two to Sturgis.

Nothing gave Connie more joy than having friends and family together for a bottle of wine, music and laughter.

Her legacy will be her kindness, her generosity, her compassion, her music and her insane creativity, which she ultimately passed on to her children and grandchildren.

She is preceded in death by her parents and her brothers and is survived by Gary, Guy (Karin), Greta Brower (Dustin), and grandchildren Nik, Nash, Aiden and Drew Stewart as well as a number of nieces, nephews and cousins.