Lucina Mary Pratt Christensen was born the 17th of July 1908 in Yale, Beadle County, South Dakota. She was the first of eight children born to Louis Dwight Pratt and Wilhelmina Jardine. Her father owned the lumber yard in the little town of Yale, and things were going nicely for the family until he passed away in February 1924 when Lucina was 16 years old leaving Wilhemina to raise the family alone. Of course Lucina took on a good share of this burden.
Though named Lucina after her paternal grandmother, Lucina Penfield Pratt, she soon acquired an intense dislike for the name and allowed only the older generation family members to use Lucina. Her father evidently took pity on her and began to call her “Sis” which was picked up by the brothers and sister and cousins. Her friends called her Lou.
Her younger brother Walter John died when he was but 16 months old.
Lou completed the three years of high school then available at Yale and went on to Northern South Dakota State Teachers college (then called South Dakota Normal) where she obtained her teaching certificate. She then taught school in a one room country school near Vale SD.
It was during this period that she met and married Harry Derscheid and returned to Yale to live. Harry worked as an automechanic and drove gravel truck (during the early years of the depression) on the WPA. To this union five children were born. The first, Francis Eugene died at only 4 1/2 months. In October 1931 Louis William was born, followed closely by Leah Marie, Shirley Lou, and Ronald Harry. This marriage ended in divorce in 1938. For a couple of years following the breakup the family was separated with some of the children living with relatives as she tried to make ends meet.
At Watertown South Dakota in 1945 she and Walter Christensen were united in holy matrimony and she immediately gained a grown son Duaine, and a grown daughter Marie. Susan Kay was born in July 1948 and Thomas Walter in December of 1949.
Walt worked as an autobody mechanic and his labors took the family to Sioux Falls and Sisseton in South Dakota, to Denver, Colorado; Lusk and Douglas, Wyoming; and finally in 1957 they settled in Albuquerque. Tommy and Susan grew up and graduated from high school there.
Lou was a strict disciplinarian, an attribute she acquired as a teacher of 180 pound 16 year old 8th graders in her one room country school house. She always had a switch or a small stick in the kitchen and the worst part of the punishment she administered was having to retrieve the switch for her to use.
She was a great sports fan as her brothers all played basketball. She would even allow oatmeal boxes tacked to the dorsill to be shot at with small rubber balls. All other forms of physical play in the house were strictly taboo. She was a fan of the St Louis Cardinals Baseball team and loved to watch the Lobos on TV. She bowled and was secretary of her league until she was in her 70’s.
She was an active member of the Women of the Moose.
She passed away peacefully at home around 7:00 pm, Friday the 13th of January 1989 at the age of 80 years and 6 months.
She was preceded in death by her parents, a son Baby Gene, her daughter Leah and five of her six brothers; Walter, Bob, Don, Kenny and Dick. She is survived by her husband Walt, a brother Jim Pratt, her only sister Dorothy Bolman, her children Duane Christensen, Marie Bevacqua, Louis Derschied, Shirley Miller, Ronald Derscheid, Susan Buchwald, Tommy Christensen, 15 grand children, 12 great grandchildren and one terrific neighbor Becky Painter.