Jo "Joan" Lampert

RAPID CITY - Jo Lampert of Rapid City and Lake Havasu, AZ, died in Rapid City on Tuesday, August 31, after a three-month battle with cancer. She was born in Bonesteel, SD, to Charles and Elma Donnelly on May 30, 1925. The family moved to Rapid City in 1930. She graduated from Cathedral High School in 1944, then entered Creighton University in Omaha. After graduating from the nursing program, she entered the Army Nurses Corps. She married Ed Papke in 1947, and to that union her only child, Jackie, was born. Living briefly in Michigan, then returning to Rapid City, she was a career nurse, and was the night supervisor of both Bennett-Clarkson Memorial Hospital and St. John's Hospital. After ending her hospital career, she spent many years at Mother Butler Center, caring for the Native Americans in Rapid City and at the Holy Rosary Indian Mission. She was inducted into the tribe for her care and dedication to the Indian community. Jo was instrumental in the forming of the Ski for Light Program, along with recruiting all of her friends and neighbors to participate in what is an outstanding program in the Black Hills. She remained in the program until her move from the winters in the Black Hills to Arizona. Dr. Art Lampert became her husband in 1969. Together they owned and operated the Holiday Inn Campground in Rapid City, and she became actively involved in tourism, where her interest remained to her last day. She was a member of the Convention & Visitors Board of Directors from its inception, and pushed programs dealing with tourism to their completion. Lake Havasu, AZ, became their home for the winters, and both actively pursued the sun in the desert heat, where she spent the happiest time with her new community of friends. She initiated a water-exercise program in her community, sometimes filling two pools with participants. She spent great times with her friends boating, swimming, bowling and gambling. The evening cocktail gathering at her space with old friends and new became a ritual to remember. She is survived by her daughter Jackie and husband Dan Cooper of Fort Collins, Cheryl Bingham and husband Jack of Las Vegas, sister Nancy Brady of Rapid City, and sister-in-law Barbara Donnelly of Rapid City, and numerous nephews and nieces. She was preceded in death by her husband Art Lampert in 2002, brother Charles Donnelly Jr., and brother Jack Donnelly, her parents, and Ed Papke. Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 3, 2004, at the Blessed Sacrament Church with Rev. Kevin Achbach as the Celebrant. Inurnment will be at the Black Hills National Cemetery. Services are under the direction of the Osheim-Catron Funeral Home.