Rachel McRae was born August 6, 1914 in Academy, South Dakota, the daughter of Edward and Nellie (Fish) McRae.

She attended grade school in Lucus, South Dakota until moving to South Creek, north of Kadoka, prior to 1930, to help her dad build a house so the rest of the family could move out. Rachel graduated from Kadoka High School in 1934. After graduation she went worked at

hotels in Kadoka and Interior.

Rachel was united in marriage to Milo Brookens on July 28, 1937 in Hot Springs, South Dakota as part of a double ceremony with Vernon Brookens and Ethel Thorson. To this union were born three children Alice, Eugene, and Edith.

After their marriage they went to work on the highway construction. They lived in a 8x12 trailer while they worked on the road with no air conditioner. Milo then helped build the bridge across White River, south of Interior. After the road construction they joined Milo’s father, George Brookens, on a ranch eight miles east of Interior. They stayed there until 1974 when they retired, moving just west of Interior. They traveled a lot, going south in the winter. Rachel was treasurer of the Interior Township for forty years. She was also treasurer for the Presbyterian Church for many years. She belonged to the Ladies Aid and the Current Event Club for many years.

After Milo’s death on November 25, 1984, she continued to live just west of Interior. She continued to live alone and driving her car until the spring of 2000 when she moved to Gordon to live with her daughter Alice Grooms.

Grateful for having shared her life are one son, Eugene Brookens and his wife Marjorie of Sioux Falls; two daughters, Alice Grooms and her husband Henry of Gordon, Nebraska, and Edith Bettelyoun and her husband Ike of Pine Ridge, South Dakota; eleven grandchildren; twenty-two great-grandchildren; one great-great-granddaughter; three sisters, Gladys Wagner of Rapid City, Muree Struble and her husband Leslie of Kadoka, and Bonnie Enders of Kadoka.

In addition to her husband Milo, Rachel was preceded in death by her parents, a sister Darlene Schofield and a brother George Edward in infancy.