RAPID CITY | Boots Newstrom died Monday, Oct. 10, 2016.

She was born near Vienna, SD, to Esther Bossen and Albert Newstrom on Jan. 13, 1928. To them, she attributed her love of learning. She graduated from Vienna High School, Black Hills State University, and received her Master's Degree in French from the University of California in Santa Barbara. She studied four summers at the Sorbonne in Paris, one summer at Oxford University in Oxford, England, and one summer at Middlebury College in Vermont. She taught French and English at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology for thirty-five years. She received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1989 and was awarded the title of Emeritus upon retirement.

Boots married her high school sweetheart, Robert Reoh, in 1952. They moved to Rapid City in 1953 where their son, Robin Reoh, was born.

Boots loved to travel and made more than 90 trips to Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, often organizing and leading groups. Her paternal grandparents came from Sweden, and her maternal grandparents from Denmark. She worked for many years on genealogy, and early in her work was reunited with many Swedish relatives that she visited regularly. Her husband, son, and daughter­ in-law, Kathy Reoh, accompanied her on several trips. Though she claimed to speak only English, French, and a bit of German, she worked on the languages of several of the countries she visited. She made many friends abroad. She particularly liked art museums, architecture, good food, sidewalk cafes, champagne, and talking to people.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her beloved husband Bob in 2007, her sister Nadene Thompson, and her brother Duane Newstrom.

Left to mourn their loss are her son and daughter-in-law of Denver, her brother Newt Newstrom, his wife Shirley, and his children of Topeka, KS, her sister Nadene's three daughters, all of California, her brother Duane's children, all of the Minneapolis area.

Final arrangements are being made by Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home. Her cremains will be mixed with those of her husband's and buried in the Newstrom family plot at Vienna.