Celia Jean Bickerdyke Welch

Celia Jean (Bickerdyke) Welch, 84, died peacefully with Jacki and Sue by her side at the Spearfish Canyon Healthcare on November 7, 2024.

Celia was born to Eugene and Naomi (Fern) Bruner Bickerdyke in Belle Fourche, SD on September 3, 1940, joining a brother, James. She spent her childhood along the banks of Cottonwood Creek in Carter County near the community of Capitol, Montana. Celia participated in 4-H for 10 years, with horses being her number one interest and lifelong love. She attended the rural one room Cottonwood Elementary School with cousins that lived up the creek and area neighbors through eighth grade, then spent two years of High School at St. Martins in Sturgis, SD and two years in Spearfish High School finishing her formal education with one year at Black Hills Teachers College. That one year in college forged friendships that would last a lifetime.

During the years following college Celia worked on the ranch with her parents, also helping area ranchers whenever an extra hand was needed whether it was lambing, calving or any kind of work involved with the ranching business. As a result, Celia accumulated a wide array of skills. One of those skills was braiding leather, rawhide, and paracord, making halters, bridles, and various horse related items.

Celia and Gary Welch were married May 14, 1973, and embarked on a shared life's journey of many and varied experiences, everything from ranching to herding bikers at the Sturgis Rally, ultimately becoming experienced teamsters leading a wagon train into the Black Hills and participating in many parades. Celia and Gary, "Joe" to many, liked to take road trips. They toured the Western coastline and the Redwoods. They traveled south to Texas and north almost to the Canadian border, that trip covering over 6000 miles. They enjoyed many shorter trips over the years.

Celia began a career as a cook at the Latchstring Inn, becoming the breakfast cook. She cooked at the Bay Leaf, the Holiday Inn and few other cafes in the Northern Hills. Finally, while working as a laborer in the building of Recreational Springs Resort, she became the first cook in the new restaurant as Recreational Springs built up the business to a full-service resort. From there, not wanting the daily commute, she became head cook at the Dorset Home in Spearfish until her retirement. After Celia retired in 2008, she and Gary moved to the Slim Buttes Buffalo Ranch of Gary's nephew, Sandy (Jacki) Limpert. There they both helped with various tasks in the developing business of buffalo raising and buffalo feed lot operations. With the help of the Limpert family, she was able to stay living at the ranch until 2022 when she moved to the Hickory House in Spearfish. There she made many friends as she continued making quilt tops for the Ladner Lutheran Church Quilt Charity. The Ladner ladies estimated Celia had sewn approximately 175 quilt tops over the years. Many of them during her stay at Hickory House when she wasn't helping assemble numerous jigsaw puzzles or playing cards with her neighbors. She enjoyed her time there until poor health necessitated a move to Spearfish Canyon Healthcare.

Celia is survived by her cousin Theo (Bickerdyke) Yanzick, Lori, Kim and Nora Bickerdyke, special advocate/niece Sue Hight, sister-in-law Fay Coffield, brother-in-law Joe Scherr, numerous nieces and nephews including Sandy and Jacki Limpert and long-time friends Llewellyn and Karen Englehart.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her brother James, and her husband of 40 years Gary (Joe) Welch.

A Celebration of Celia's Life will be held 10 am Monday, November 25, 2024 at Leverington Funeral Home of the Northern Hills in Belle Fourche, with Pastor Pete Gradinaru officiating. There will be a private family committal service for inurnment beside her husband in Limpert Family Cemetery on the Slim Buttes Buffalo Ranch in Harding County. Friends may leave written condolences online at: http://www.LeveringtonFH.com.