Rally's Grand Dame dies at 99

By Dan Daly, Journal Staff Writer | Tuesday, March 01, 2005

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STURGIS — Pearl Hoel cooked dinner for all 150 people who attended the first Sturgis motorcycle event in 1938. In 2004, she remained a high-profile supporter of the Sturgis motorcycle rally, an event that now draws as many as half a million bikers from all over the world.

"Everyone in town referred to her as the First Lady of Sturgis," Pepper Massey-Swan, head of the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame, said. "She loved the event, she loved the people. … I don't what we'll do without her."

Pearl T. Hoel died Sunday at Sturgis Community Health Care Center. She was 99.

Her husband, Clarence "Pappy" Hoel was an Indian Motorcycle dealer who started a motorcycle race outside Sturgis in 1938 as a way to generate interest in Indian Motorcycles and the sport of motorcycling.

Pearl, who personally didn't like riding motorcycles, supported his early efforts and continued her support of the event after his death in 1989.

Through the years of the rally, she developed friendships with people from throughout the world. She was interviewed by National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and other media.

"When the reporters wanted to speak to someone who had seen the various changes in the growth of the rally, we would always send them to Pearl," Massey-Swan said Monday. "And Pearl was always generous with her time."

She was the perfect interview. She had watched the annual rally grow from a tiny local gathering into "Sturgis," the international event that has become the symbol of the biker lifestyle.

In the early 1930s, the Hoels had an ice business, Canyon Ice Co. Each winter, they would cut blocks from the holding dams in Vanocker Canyon during winter and store them until summer. Then, they would sell block ice to Sturgis residents in the summer, Cliff Linn, former Sturgis mayor and longtime friend, recalled. Some of the dams are still in Vanocker Canyon, he said.

When electricity came to Sturgis, people abandoned their ice boxes. Pappy Hoel decided to get into the motorcycle business and acquired the Indian Motorcycle dealership.

While he built the business, she worked at Meade County Courthouse, a steady paycheck that helped keep the dealership going through the tough years of the Great Depression.

In 1938, there were enough young bikers in the area to stage a regional motorcycle race. Each year after the race, the Hoels and others would put on a barbecue for the racers and fans, Linn said. That is how the big Sturgis event began.

Except for 1938 and 1939, when he was living on the farm near Hereford, and the two years during World War II when the event was cancelled, Cliff Linn has attended every Sturgis rally.

Linn said he has more memories of Pearl Hoel on horseback than astride a motorcycle. She and Clarence were active members of the saddle club Linn belonged to. The group often rode their horses in the Vanocker Canyon area where the Hoels had a cabin.

"She didn't ride a whole lot, but she liked to associate with us, so she'd come by car," he said.

In November 2004, on her 99th birthday, Pearl Hoel said: "The most important thing that has happened to me over the years is the friends I've made. I don't know what I'd do without them."

The feeling is mutual, according to Massey-Swan. In a tribute posted Monday on the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum Web site, www.sturgismotorcycle

museum.org, Massey-Swan profiled the First Lady of Sturgis.

"When I first met Pearl, she seemed fragile, small of stature, soft spoken, smiling and in her late 80s. My opinion was soon modified. The more time I spent with this amazing woman, the more I learned of her strength, tenacity and sense of purpose," Massey-Swan wrote.

"Even at 99 years young, Pearl was the best source of information on the Rally. Because she was there from the beginning, and because this event was her passion, her gift of recall and her ability to share oral history was constantly in demand, and she reveled in each opportunity."

Funeral services will be Saturday at 2 p.m. in Sturgis.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com