Eminent Homemaker
County: Lawrence
Leona Rebbe’s ability as a homemaker is attested by the ranch house she and Henry L. Rebbe built on a grassy knoll near the Wyoming state line 10 miles west of Spearfish. Originally a log-house built by Henry Rebbe’s father in the 1880s the Rebbes completely modernized the home. The house if furnished in good taste and has hardwood floors.
Everything about the house, both inside and out, tell of the practical accomplishments of a busy housewife. The lawn surrounding the house is well kept and the Rebbes have planted black walnut and willow trees that form a windbreak against the winter blizzards. There is an orchard of apple and plum trees, near the house. An irrigation system furnishes water for the trees, lawn, flowers, garden plots and a few acres of farm land.
The Rebbes have four children. All of the children graduated from Spearfish high schools and attended college, and all have been active in 4-H club work. They have all represented South Dakota at the National Club Congress in Chicago and the eldest son was South Dakota health champion.
Rebbe has been an active worker and is a past president of the Crow Creek Home Extension club, which was organized in 1924. She was her children’s teacher for the most part of elementary school.
Rebbe, whose maiden name was Leona Forrest, was born on a farm near Antioch, Kentucky, June 22, 1883. She attended public schools and graduated from high school in Horse Cave, Kentucky. She attended the Normal School at Kentucky State College, Lexington and Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, where she majored in English.
She taught in the high school in Adairville, Kentucky, and in Lakeland and St. Petersburg, Florida, before going to North Dakota in 1908 to become principal of Marmarth high school.
In 1910 at Belle Fourche she married Henry L. Rebbe, who graduated from the law school at the University of Michigan. They moved to Boise, Idaho, where they resided until 1917 when they moved to their present home. Rebbe taught school for four years in the rural school near her present home.
The Rebbes are members of the Methodist Church of Spearfish.