Lois Jacobsen Doner93, died peacefully in her sleep Monday, April 20 at Harvest Hill in Lebanon, NH, where she had lived since 2001.

Born in 1921 in Yokohama, Japan, to two adventurous parents who met there, Lois returned to the States at age two and spent her childhood intermittently in Plainfield, New Jersey, and outside Pierre, South Dakota, on her family's sheep ranch.

She had her first poems published when she was a student at South Dakota State University in Brookings and continued writing poetry and short stories for the next six decades; she was published in The Atlantic and various quarterlies. Lois was a generous and loving woman and deeply touched the lives of those who knew her.

Her spirit lives on in her poetry.

Lois married Dean Doner in 1943 and was predeceased by him in 1990. She is survived by her three daughters, Kalia Doner and husband John McIntosh, Margaret Doner and husband Chris Hanckel, and Lauren Doner Hirn and her husband Brent and son Angus, and by her niece Joan Waltermire and husband John Douglas of Vershire, VT.

Both sides of Lois's family had deep roots in the frontier and were committed to Native American causes; her great aunt Mary Collins was a friend of Sitting Bull and taught his children in Little Eagle on the Standing Rock reservation.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in Lois's name to the Lakota Sioux through St. Joseph's Indian School in Chamberlin, SD. You can do it online at www.stjo.org (click on: how you can help/memorials/in lieu of flowers) or via snail-mail to St. Joseph's Indian School, P.O. Box 100, Chamberlain, SD 57325-0100.

Her final resting place will be back in the land she felt closest to, next to her husband, in Brookings, SD.