Dode Lee received a very pleasant surprise at the recent West River History Conference.

When the Sturgis resident heard her name announced, she thought she was to present the Bob Lee Award for the best paper on frontier military history. Instead, she received the Herb Blakely Award.

"Bob would have been tickled," Lee said of the honor, which recognizes outstanding contributions to local and regional history, a sense of American patriotism, and efforts to further the concepts of good citizenship. The award is named after the man who founded the conference.

"After I got home, I thought it was probably because of the nature of the life Bob and I lived," Lee said of the award.

Bob, her late husband, and Blakely were good friends and wanted to have a history conference in western South Dakota.

Dakota Territory and early statehood served as the theme for this year's event, held in Rapid City. The conference put out a call for papers, and speakers listened to each other.

Lee was born in a pioneer family living in the Rapid City area, and Bob would visit her father. He wrote for the Rapid City Journal at the time; his duties included being West River editor.

"He just became fascinated with the area," Lee related.

Her upbringing contributed to having an appeal to Lee. "Bob's avid interest in it got me more interested," Lee recalled. "Once you start, it's just part of what you think about, what you do."

Lee said this area really lends itself to a sense of history. Such recollection benefits young people, she continued.

Area history features a lot of attention paid to military and Native American culture. Lee's interest is focused on the pioneers, especially business people who began the towns. She said people became famous due to their names and lifestyles.

Bob retired in 1986 and devoted his life to writing and research, according to Lee. She accompanied him to history conferences and other events, giving some papers herself.

Lee looks at history as a discussion of past events, and making those events come alive through research and reading. "It's hard to define it, in a way."

The Sturgis Area Arts Council sponsors the Art for Lunch Bunch; Lee's involvement spans several years. She recalled Phyllis Egge and Laverne Elliott began asking local residents to share family stories. Attendance increased as a result, according to Lee.

Some of those histories were tape-recorded with the speaker's permission, according to Lee. She said those tapes will go to the library so others may hear them.