Geraldean Lynn was born January 7, 1926, in Winner, South
Dakota. She was the middle one of three sisters. When she was six years old,
her parents escaping the grasshoppers and the dust bowl, moved the family to
Deerfield in the western Black Hills. She attended a small country school there
through the ninth grade. She joined her older sister in Rapid City where both
attended the high school, following their family tradition of finishing high
school. They lived in rented rooms and worked to earn their “keep.” Given the
transportation issues and the late depression economy, they probably only
visited home in Deerfield a few times other than Christmas during the school
year. After her older sister had graduated high school, her younger sister
joined her to continue the family attendance. Geraldean graduated in 1943.
She obtained an appointment as a teacher in one of the rural
schools. This was the height of World War II with many shortages including teachers;
rural school boards would hire promising high school graduates as teachers. Readers
of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books will recall that Laura went from high school
graduation to a teaching role without further schooling.
In 1944, Geraldean enrolled in South Dakota Mines and began
her college education. She graduated in 1948 with a BS in Physics. She joined
the General Electric works in Hanford, Washington, working on nuclear reactor
design and...