Eminent Homemaker
County: Lake
Mildred Acheson now shares the Eminent Homemaker honor with her husband, Earl, who was named an Eminent Farmer in 1980. But that is not the only thing they have in common; they also share a strong belief in God and in the need for giving of themselves to others, especially the handicapped.
The couple is active in the Association for Retarded Citizens because of their daughter Dian, who died in 1983 as the result of a car accident. During the school year, Mildred takes special education students bowling once a week . It is an outing she has continued even after Dian's death.
A strong believer in education, Mildred keeps abreast of current research methods and created an interest in education for her four children. Mildred herself was a teacher and then substitute teacher after marriage.
She is a 35-year member of the Franklin Ladies Extension Homemaker Club and eagerly participates in county lessons on upholstering, refinishing furniture and heritage. On the state level, she is the public relations project leader and was the District XII secretary-treasurer.
She is also a 27-year volunteer 4-H leader, has been active in the County 4-H Leaders' Association and is the county foods project leader, frequently traveling a five-county area to judge during Achievement Days. In 1983 she and her husband were honored with the Lake County 4-H Meritorious Service Award. All of her children were active in 4-H, three of whom attended National 4-H Congress. Mildred takes an active interest in the diversified farming operation and takes pride in the farmstead where she grew up as a child. She was a member of the Faith Preschool for Retarded Children in Sioux Falls, a charter member of the Lake County Association for Retarded Children, a member of the Franklin Cemetery Committee and the ALCW of St. Jacob's Lutheran Church of rural Colton. She has been active with the Lake County Friends of 4-H, PTA in the Chester and Franklin School Districts, FHA and advisory councils for home economics and special education teachers at Lake Central School.
Although still active in farming, the couple maintains close family ties with daughter Jane Seymour and husband Ronald of Redfield, South Dakota; son Lyle and wife Barbara, grandsons Steve and John of Madison, South Dakota, and son-in-law Jim Gale, granddaughters Julie and Lisa of Algona, Iowa.