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‘Nonie’ Wicks spent lifetime serving state with nursing career


Naomi Wicks, 93, of Redfield, passed away on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, at Community Memorial Hospital in Redfield.
Funeral services will be held Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, at 10:30 a.m. at United Methodist Church in Redfield.
Cremains will be buried at Richland Cemetery, north of Carpenter under the direction of Thelen Funeral Home of Redfield.
Naomi “Nonie” Wicks was born on May 9, 1922, to Byron and Alma (Meisner) Wolverton on a farm south of Doland. She attended rural grade school near Doland and then Doland High School and the Sprague Hospital School of Nursing in Huron. She graduated with honors from these institutions. Nonie worked at the hospital.
On Dec. 19, 1943, she and high school schoolmate Kenneth Wicks were married at Sedalia Chapel on Sedalia Army Base in Missouri. During the Army years they lived in Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina and Texas. Kenneth had enlisted in the Air Corps in 1941, prior to the Pearl Harbor attack. During his five years of duty he was sent to China, Burma and the India theaters of operations. Upon his discharge in 1946, they rented and later purchased a farm south of Doland, which is still in the possession of the family.
Nonie did general duty nursing in various hospitals where Kenneth was stationed. Before the advent of ICU units in hospitals, she also did private nursing in Huron and Redfield. She was often called upon to give short-term care to neighbors in the community and to accompany patients to Mayo Clinic and the hospitals in Rochester, Minn. With the advent of Medicare, she was director of nursing at an extended care facility in Redfield for five years.
While farming, Kenneth had also been a salesman for Pioneer Seeds International. He subsequently became a district sales manager for that company and they moved to Redfield and then to Mobridge. With the move to Mobridge, Nonie thought she would retire from nursing; however, she received a call from the South Dakota Department of Health with a challenging offer. For 10 years, she traveled the state as a hospital and nursing home inspector for the Medicare, Medicaid and state licensure programs. During that period, she also completed a specialized college course at the University of New Hampshire in 1971. After hundreds of thousands of miles driving, she retired from nursing in 1979.
Kenneth and Nonie remained close to their friends in business and in the communities where they had lived. During Kenneth’s employment with Pioneer, they had occasions to take several trips to the majority of the European countries, Jamaica, Hawaii and Alaska. They did extensive travel on their own in the United States and spent 12 winters in Arizona. Kenneth passed away in April of 2000 and Nonie had remained in her home in Mobridge until 2014 when she moved to the Eastern Star Home in Redfield.
Nonie loved reading, playing cards, flowers, poetry, sewing (including quilts), cooking, collecting recipes, working crossword puzzles, and collecting in general, especially dishes.
Through her years she was active in her community. She served on the Spink County township board and was a Spink County 4-H leader. She was a baptized member of Doland Methodist Church. Subsequently, she was a longtime member of the United Congregational Church, its women’s fellowship, and was in the church choir for 20 years. She was a member of the Order of The Eastern Star and was a past matron of that chapter. She belonged to the Mobridge Hospital Auxiliary, the Arts and Travel Club and several bridge clubs. She was a shareholder of the Mobridge Country Club. In 1985, she was honored by the Mobridge Jaycees with the Outstanding Woman’s Award.
Nonie had a ready smile and an unassuming nature, but those who knew her best always knew her viewpoint on issues at hand.
Nonie is survived by two daughters, Charlotte (Kenneth) Smith of McKinney, Texas, and Trudy (Rick) Bryson of Reno, Nev.; and four grandchildren.
Preceding her in death were her parents, her husband Kenneth and a brother Maurice Wolverton.
Memorial may be sent to the North Central Humane Society in Aberdeen.

 

 

Naomi

Naomi “Nonie” Wicks

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