CASTLEWOOD, SD; 30 JULY 1987
Wehn Dee Vetter, chariman of the all school reunion held in Castlewood this weekend, drove up to school Monday morning, she thaught reunions were behind her for awhile. What she didn’t realize was that she was about to become involved in a reunion again, this time a family reunion.
Tim and Joan (Jardine)Couckuyt of Fairbanks, Alaska, didn’t necessarily have reunions on their mind either when they drove into Castlewood Monday morning. This was one of their main stops on a three month trip down through Kansas City and St Louis, MO and over to the West Coast.
Joan was hoping to find something about her mother, Ann Jardine’s relatives. “I didn’t think I had a relative in the world when my mother died,” she said.
Dee was heading to the school to look through boxes of old newspaper photograpsh left from the reunion when the big camper from Alaska pulled up.
“We told her we were looking for information about Ann Jardine Kermink or her family,” the Couckuyts said.
Dee remembered the name and brought them into the school before going home to get the alumni records. Margaret Gerhold, who was in the school, brought Alta Smith over. Alta remembered the Jardine family and also informed Joan that she had several second cousins in the area, all children of WHR Ching. Ann Jardine’s father was James Jardine and his sister (her namesake), Annie Jardine, married WHR Ching. Annie and WHR’s children, (second cousins to Joan) are Wille, Dick *Melvin), Mrs John (Lois) Goldhorn, and Mrs Earl (Mary) Raasch, all of Castlewood; High (Peanuts) of Edmund, OK; Mrs Clyde Brooks and Mrs Ernest Olson, Watertown; and Mrs Clem Sonntag of Wisconsin. Another brother Howard is deceased.
Lois Goldhorn was the first of the new found relatives to arrive. Giving Joan a hug, she exclaimed, “I don’t know you from Adam, but I know we’re related!” Lois daughter, Phyllis Osterday from Nebraska, was with her.
Arriving soon after wre Mary Raasch, who remembered going to school with Ann, and “Peanuts” and his wife, Myrtle, who were back in South Dakota for the school reunion.
“This is the first we knew of Ann since high school,” Mary said. Together, they filled in the pieces of Ann’s life.
Ann was born in Castlewood, the youngest of four girls. Her father disappeared when she was very young. Shortly after that, Ann’s mother died and the girls were taken in by different families. Ann was raised by the Garrit Kemink family.
After graduating from high school, Ann left Castlewood. She raised her daughter, Joan, in California.
While in her late 20’s, Ann sought out information about her father. She wrote to newspapers in the Saskatchewan, Canada area where he had been going to look for work at the time of his disappearance. She learned that he had been robbed and murdered there. “This is the first any of us knew of (what had happened to) Uncle Jim.” Mary said.
Ann died in 1978. Joan’s husband Jim retired from the Marines 22 years ago and they have lived in Alaska since. They had three sons, two of whom are living, and have two grandchildren. Thrveling with them is their Blue fronted Amazon parrot, Calvin Klein, which Joan describes as “ a bird of fine feathers.
Although the Couckuyts missed the Castlewood school reunion by one day, they celebrated their own special reunion Monday with family that they never knew existed.