Brenda E. Dennis

1935 - 2025

Brenda E Dennis

August 20, 1935 - January 10, 2025

Brenda Dennis, former owner of Trader's Corner, passed away under hospice care at home on January 10th. During Brenda's life she knew and touched the lives of seven generations, from her great grandmother in England to her great grandchildren in Rapid City.

Brenda Eileen Batten was born in August 1935 in Hammersmith, West London, England, the third of three children after her brother Ron and sister Dolcie. Their home was a second-floor flat in a row house on Parfrey Street, between Charing Cross Hospital and the River Thames. Her parents Ernest and Grace were married there during WWI and Brenda's grandmother, great grandmother, and great aunt and uncle lived on the same street.

Brenda's childhood was marked by the start of WWII in 1939 and the bombing of London that began in September 1940. Ron served in North Africa. They had close calls and were sometimes only able to shelter under the home stairway. When the German V1 rockets appeared in 1943, Brenda would run into the street to see them pass overhead. In 1944, the Parfrey Street flat sustained bomb damage, Brenda almost showered with glass. She remembered the King and Queen's visit to a nearby school where Brenda's family and neighbors had taken refuge.

Despite the traumas and privations of the war, life continued on Parfrey Street. Brenda played childhood games with the many children on her block. Her sister Dolcie loved to dance and saw many of the famous American big bands. A children's party for the Victory in Europe was held on the street in front of their home. She attended the Burlington Girls Grammar School and Princess Elizabeth spoke at an honors ceremony there. Brenda was an avid bike rider, cycling around Greater London, and an accomplished kayaker at the Chertsey Camping Club.

At 16, Brenda graduated and began working at a fashion buying office near Piccadilly Circus. Owing to her petite size she was also an occasional fitting model for the new lines. In July 1952, she met a young US airman, Carroll Dennis, and the following March they married. The couple settled into a thatched roof cottage near the Greenham Common airbase and Michael was born in 1954.

Life for Brenda changed dramatically with their moves to bases in Texas and Arkansas where Raymond and Thomas were born in 1955 and 1956. In 1957, she was naturalized as a US citizen in Iowa and the family returned to England where Laura was born in 1959. Moves to Nebraska, Germany, and North Dakota followed, before the family finally settled in Rapid City in 1967 while Carroll completed his Air Force service in Vietnam.

Brenda had been active in Cub and Boy Scouting and youth clubs in Germany and Minot, N.D. In Rapid City she launched herself into the community after getting her first driver's license and car. There were the boys' baseball practices, Laura's swimming team, and coaching a school bowling league at Meadowbrook Lanes. She had several part-time jobs. For several years, the family managed a Sunday paper route for the Minneapolis Tribune throughout the Black Hills.

In 1983, Brenda started Trader's Corner in the old building next to the Dairy Queen on Canyon Lake Drive. It became a Rapid City institution. Brenda, Carroll, and Laura were fixtures for many years at auctions throughout the Hills until Carroll's death in January 2002. Laura continued the store at Black Hawk from 2004 to 2011. Four generations of the family worked there and multiple generations of customers came to know Brenda.

Brenda was a mother to all. In addition to her own family, she dispensed motherly advice and comfort to the loyal customers who became her friends at Trader's Corner. In later life, Brenda opened her home to her mother-in-law, Lillie Groth, and to her grandchildren and great grandchildren, saying "This is your home."

Brenda was predeceased by her husband, Carroll Dennis; and her sons, Raymond (Marlene) and Thomas (Suzy). She is survived by her daughter, Laura Kinser of Rapid City; son, Michael Dennis (Stephanie Roth) of Edmond, Okla.; grandchildren, Tim Dennis (Rachael), Parker Dennis, Melissa Kinser, David Kinser, Zachary Roth, Jannell Boeckerman, Amanda Due, and Rob and Matt Ohotto; plus five great grandchildren.

Interment will be at the Black Hills National Cemetery. Plans for a memorial service are pending.