Alice Mae Thompson passed away peacefully from pneumonia on October 27 at the age of 97 at Bethesda Nursing Home in Webster, South Dakota.

Private family services will be held at a later date at Coester Funeral Home, Webster.

Known to many as the author of the emailed "Morning Memo" (at one point with 2000 recipients), Alice touched many lives with her evocative stories of farm life in the early part of the twentieth century, and made people laugh with the jokes she included in every issue.

Born on September 6, 1919 to Danish immigrants Paul Thompson and Inger Holm Thompson in Waubay, South Dakota, Alice's family struggled to make their farm productive. They survived the Great Depression and ultimately managed to educate 6 children, some with advanced degrees. Alice wrote a book detailing her early years on the farm, a time when a trip of 40 miles was considered an expedition. She returned frequently to visit Waubay over the years.

Alice traveled extensively when she grew older. She lived with her brother Dr. Marvin R. Thompson in Great Neck, NY during her early 20s, going to work in New York City wearing spotless white gloves every day, as did all respectable women at that time. During World War II, Alice was lured to Hollywood by a talent for singing and a desire to see the West Coast, which remained a golden place in her memories.

After a brief career as a chanteuse, she met her first husband, George Hunt, and had a daughter. This marriage did not survive the tumultuous post-war period and she returned to Waubay and then to Minneapolis, where she met her second husband, Hoyt Mackenstadt, and had two sons. The family lived for many years in Eden Prairie, MN

Moving to downtown Minneapolis in her 50s, Alice became a paralegal in the law firm of Gray, Plant and later became a loyal member of the Elder Learning Institute (now OLLI), and traveled with this group. She finished her Associate's Degree from the University of Minnesota at age 70, determined to do so because when she was young, daughters were not educated beyond high school. Despite health problems, she continued to have an active life zooming around Minneapolis perched on her electric power chair "Jazzy". With fierce determination, Alice succeeded in living independently and happily in her condominium at "The Crossings" until the age of 94, when she finally went to a nursing home.

Alice outlived most of her contemporaries ("no peer pressure" she would say) and is preceded in death by brothers Warren, Marvin, Herald, Howard and Robert.

She is survived by her three children, Dr. Robert Cambridge (wife Maya and grandson Robert Cambridge Jr.), Dr. Andrea Hunt, and William Mackenstadt, and close relatives including Dr. Elizabeth Thompson and Melinda Kmoch.

She is remembered with love and admiration. A true "Dakota Daughter".