Richard Frank Jedlicka, better known as "Dick" to his family and friends, was born November 6, 1933, on a farm in Charles Mix County near Geddes, South Dakota, to Frank and Bertha (Dvorak) Jedlicka.

He grew up on a farm and attended rural school in the Geddes area.  In 1946 he moved with his family to Platte, South Dakota.  He graduated from Platte High School in 1951.

He worked as a ranch hand until 1954 when he entered the U.S. Army, during the Korean War.

He was united in marriage to Donna Hemple on December 23, 1954, at Geddes.

After his military discharge in 1956, he returned to South Dakota where he worked on construction of the Oahe Dam and later worked for the South Dakota Department of Highways, in Murdo, South Dakota.  In 1958 they made their home in Vivian, South Dakota, where he was employed with Metz Baking Company as a route salesman for seven years prior to moving to Philip, South Dakota, in 1965 where he continued as route salesman for another seven years, before retiring.

In 1971 the family moved to a ranch located in the Badlands, south of Wall, South Dakota, where they continued to live until his death.  He also operated a ditching and trenching business along with his ranching.  He sold the ditching business and retired from ranching in April of 1989 so he could be the co-wagonmaster of the Western South Dakota Centennial Wagon Train in the summer of 1989.  It was that summer that he learned he had leukemia.  Dick was instrumental in organizing the family wagon train.

Dick was involved for many years in helping with and supporting the local high school rodeo clubs.  He became a great friend of the American Indian and grew to love and understand their ways.

Dick was a member of the United Methodist Church in Wall.  He served two years on the board of the Quinn Retirement Home, was an officer of the Cottonwood Roping Club and was a board member for the Badlands Natural History Association.  He was a member of the Crescent Masonic Lodge #210 of Wall as well as the F.J. Willuweit V.F.W. Post #9120 of Quinn and the Wheeler-Brooks American Legion Post #173 of Philip.

Grateful for having shared his life are his wife, Donna Jedlicka of Wall; two sons, Michael Jedlicka of Sioux Falls, and David Jedlicka of Rapid City; three granddaughters, Heidi, Amy, and Katie Jedlicka; two sisters, Mary Ann (Mrs. Sam) Lewis of Chamberlain, South Dakota, and Dorothy Stluka of Geddes, South Dakota; and a host of other relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by one son, Curtis L. Jedlicka, on May 22, 1986; his parents; three brothers, Bob Jedlicka, Norman Jedlicka, and Frankie Jedlicka in infancy.

Services
Wednesday, April 10, 1991
2:00 p.m.
Wall Community Center
Wall, South Dakota

Officiating
Reverend Charles Hunt

Music
Dorothy Shearer - Organist
Kyle Evans - Vocalist
Lyndy Ireland & Joyce Wheeler - Vocalists

Ushers
Jack Moravec - Justin Wheeler
Cliff Fees - Boyd Waara

Active Pallbearers
Ray Hunter - Lavon Shearer
Charles Price - Vint Williams
Virgil Horton - Dwayne "Sonny" Newman

Honorary Pallbearers
Gallyn Wolf - Chuck Willard
Jim Lockhart - Lowell Blome
Paul Birnbaum - Vint Ireland
Harold Schnee - Milton Trask
Don Hight - Dave Moore

Interment with Military Honors
Wall Cemetery
Wall, South Dakota