Cleo Jean Collar EricksonCleo Jean Collar Erickson was born on November 13, 1926 in the same Clay County farmhouse as her father, on Dakota Territory granted to her homesteading great-grandfather by President Johnson in 1866. She was an only child and a true daughter of Dakota.After graduating Busy Bend #9 country school in Clay County and University High School in Vermillion in 1944, she married her high school sweetheart Norris and began a journey that led her to homes in Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, California and back in South Dakota.Cleo was a small town girl who became a mother, grandmother, antique dealer, noted historian and (most surprising to her) a published author. She was always the first name suggested for any civic, school or special event committee or celebration - the mark of a true community leader.Her community activism was born of the passion and anger of housewives (in 1968, when that term was still considered the polite way to refer to women who spent more hours in weekly labor than did husbands in offices). The Austin Whittemore House was deemed a pioneer days relic standing on a lot near downtown Vermillion better used for retail parking. Cleo and three other women . . . disagreed. They founded the Clay County Historical Society - soliciting donations by cold-calling the Vermillion phone book until enough money was raised to buy the Whittemore House and restore it.Though Cleo lived in fourteen houses over her life, the Whittemore House was her only true second home. After its restoration, it not only was placed on the federal Historic Register but also became the hub of county and family history. She served in so many capacities within the "Hysterical Society" over so many years that she was finally simply designated "President Emeritus" - spending the last 15 years of her time at the Whittemore House as the smiling face and voice of the Society, compiling family histories and prairie anecdotes for the related or merely interested.Her love of history eventually became a retail reality. "Jean's Antiques" (an homage to her sometimes used middle name) moved through three different locations in Vermillion over the course of a decade.Faced with Vermillion's sesquicentennial celebration, she not only helped produce an entire year of tributes and activities in 2009, she co-authored a book: "From the River Valleys to the Rising Bluff" (a pictorial history of Vermillion). The only hint of personal pride she ever portrayed was the smile on her face when someone asked her to "sign her book" for them.Cleo was named South Dakota's "historian of the year" in 2012 by Gov. Daugaard. Such was her record of achievement that the day she retired from the Clay County Historical Society - July 20, 2014 - was by gubernatorial proclamation deemed to be "Cleo Jean Erickson Day." Her retirement ceremony was attended by a cross-section of notables and almost surely "Horace the ghost" (the spirit of a Whittemore House former resident that generations of school children believed followed them around on their tours of the farthest corners of the home).But all her accomplishments paled in comparison to her role as mother and grandmother. She enjoyed what most mothers deserve - an objective confirmation of her "achievements in this area" when she was named South Dakota's "Mother of the Year" in 1992.Cleo passed away January 12 while visiting friends in Bremerton, WA after a sudden and unexpected illness. She was preceded in death by her parents Gordon & Myrtle Collar and her husband Norris. She is survived by her son Paul, daughter Susan (Romney Jones) and her two "exceptional" grandchildren, Dominick and Claire Jones.A prayer service and reflection time will be conducted between 5:00 and 7:00 PM on Tuesday, January 17 at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Vermillion. A celebration of her life will follow at 7:30 PM at the Austin Whittemore House in Vermillion. A funeral mass will be conducted at 10:00 AM Wednesday morning, January 18, at St. Agnes Catholic Church. Burial will be at Bluff View Cemetery.In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any memorials be directed to the ongoing work of the Clay County Historical Society. Of course.Condolences may be posted online to www.koberfuneralhome.com