Pauline B. Ball, 96, of Rapid City, died Friday, February 14, 2020 Good Samaritan Society St. Martin Village.

Pauline Bethel Ball was born April 21, 1923 in a farmhouse in Smith County Kansas to Charles and Bethel (Fitzgerald) Mountford.  She lived on the farm with her mother, father and brother Owen.  Her father died when she was 12 years old.  The family eventually lost the farm and moved into the small town of Lebanon, Kansas where she worked as a clerk in a drug store (she always said she was a soda jerk).  She also took a job as assistant postmaster.  Also at one point in time she was a teacher in a one room school house.. She told the story of living with a family on a farm a mile from the school.  She would get up early and walk to the school and start the fire in the wood stove to warm the room before the students arrived.

By this time the country was in the Great Depression and Kansas was a dust bowl and the Second World War had broken out.  Pauline and her mother traveled by train to California in hopes of finding an job.  She ended up working at the McDonald Douglas Aircraft factory in Long Beach.  Her job was tightening rivets on airplanes..  She was "Rosie the riveter".

It was on that train ride to California that Pauline met her future husband Donald Ball.  He was from Lindley, New York and on his way to California for military training before shipping out to the pacific. Don served for four years in the medical detachment of the Army Air Corps, 2 and a half years on board ship in the pacific.  When the war ended Don received his army discharge at Fort Dix NJ and then went to Kansas to claim Pauline, the girl he met on the train.  Pauline and Don were married on December 22, 1945 in Lebanon Kansas.  They lived for a while in New York then moved to Oberlin, KS where their first child, Donald Richard, was born.  From there they went to Yankton SD where daughters Donna Beth and Debra Kay were born.  In May of 1955 Pauline and Don moved to Rapid City.  Pauline was a stay at home mom who worked hard to manage her house and family.  She cooked and cleaned and raised her three children often alone without a car for a week at a time while Don was on the road making a living as a salesman.  The house was filled with love and laughter and lots of people who were brought home by Don, often for dinner.  Pauline always managed to stretch the food to accommodate the extra people at the dinner table.  Pauline lost her husband Don on December 13, 1997 just a few days shy of 52 years of marriage.  She also lost her daughter Debra on October 10, 2017.  Pauline continued to live in her home until 2014 when she moved to assisted living at Echo Ridge and then to St. Martins Village in 2018.

Her surviving children Donald Ball and wife Rose live in Beulah ND and Donna Neal and husband Dave live in Black Hawk.  Her son in law Bob Biernbaum lives in Rapid City.  She is also survived by 5 grandchildren, 8 great children and 2 great great grandchildren.

Services will be at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home with visitation one hour prior.

Burial will be at Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis.