FRIEDA VAINIO WATERSON

Jan. 4, 1926–Jan. 25, 2025

Frieda Vainio Waterson, age 99, passed away on Jan. 25, 2025, at Weston County Manor in Newcastle, Wyoming, where she had been a resident for several years. 

Frieda was born Jan. 4, 1926, in Lead, South Dakota, to Werner and Lydia (Anderson) Vainio. Her father was a Finnish immigrant, and her mother was also Finnish and was a first-generation American. The family lived in Lead where her father worked in the gold mine.

Later they moved to Newell, South Dakota, to be closer to family, then to the Whitewood Valley area where Frieda attended country school and learned to speak English. The family farmed and Frieda helped with chores and milking cows from an early age. She spent her first year of high school in Lead, South Dakota, where she lived with the Matson family helping with their children. Returning home, she finished high school in Whitewood and graduated in 1944.

Her months after school were spent in Detroit, Michigan, living with her aunt and working at the Detroit Press as a typist. She then moved back home and married her high school sweetheart, William Waterson Jr., on March 25, 1945. The couple was blessed with four children and lived in many places around the Black Hills, including Rapid City, Lead, Sturgis, and St. Onge.

In 1969, Will was seriously injured in a construction accident and was unable to work for several years. During that time, Frieda worked to support the family. To secure their future and attain her life-long dream, she decided to go to college and become a teacher.

Frieda graduated from Black Hills State in 1972, and the family moved to Newcastle, Wyoming, where she taught special education and kindergarten for more than 20 years.

Upon retirement, Frieda and Will moved back to Spearfish where they lived until Will’s death in 2011. Frieda then moved to Newcastle to be closer to her daughter and later became a resident of Weston County Manor. 

Frieda was a devoted daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother and loved the Lord with all her heart. She was a talented seamstress, making most of her two daughters’ clothes as well as her own and sewing for others when needed. She loved gardening, growing flowers, crocheting, and baking, especially chocolate chip cookies for the grandkids and farmer bread for everyone. But most of all, she loved spending time with family and friends. She was always ready with coffee and welcomed all guests, whether it was just a chat, giving a friend a perm, or feeding breakfast to a kitchen full of deer hunters. Frieda and Will loved to go dancing, to travel, and later in their life, they enjoyed a good slot tournament and a chance to visit with new-found friends.

She loved being a teacher and by chance in her later years, she lived in an apartment at Weston County Senior Citizens Center that had once been her kindergarten room. It was very special for her and gave her a chance to talk about her great memories and experiences as a teacher and all the children she
had taught.

Frieda is survived by her son, James (Becky) Waterson of Ogden, Utah; daughter, Vera (Richard) Huber of Newcastle; son-in-law, Dwight Vander Vorste of Royal City, Washington; brother, Paul Vainio of Albuquerque, New Mexico; 12 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, William Waterson Jr.; her son, David and daughter-in-law, Tara Waterson of Fort Peck, Montana; her daughter, Shirley Vander Vorste of Royal City; her brother, John and sister-in-law, Laurie of St. Onge, South Dakota; her sister, Vera and brother-in-law, Kenny Boe of Rapid, South Dakota, and infant grandson, Timothy Waterson.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Weston County Manor Activities Department.

Memorial services will be Saturday, Feb. 15, at 1 p.m. at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Whitewood, SD.

Condolences may be sent to the family at kinkadefunerals.com.