USS Saint Paul, an 13,600-ton Baltimore class heavy cruiser, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts, and commissioned in February 1945. She went to the Pacific following shakedown and participated in final operations against the Japanese home islands in July and August 1945, including firing her eight-inch main battery guns at targets ashore at Hamamatsu and Kamaishi.Saint Paul was present in Tokyo Bay when Japan formally surrendered on 2 September 1945. She supported occupation activities in Japan until November, when she went to Chinese waters, where she continued to serve until late in 1946.
Lyle F. Jorenby, 90, of Brookings, passed away Sunday, November 10, 2013 at the Brookings Hospital. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 am Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at First Lutheran Church, in Brookings. Visitation will be from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm Tuesday at Rude’s Funeral Home in Brookings.
Lyle with his dad Norman Jorenby in 1923. Lyle Franklin Jorenby was born December 7, 1922, the oldest of 10 children of Norman and Stella (Waage) Jorenby, in Brookings County, SD. He and his family farmed in various locations around Volga during the Great Depression.After graduation from Volga High School in 1941, Lyle worked on the family farm and was celebrating his 19th birthday when the news came of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His father died 2 months later, leaving Lyle to help his mother with the raising of his 9 siblings, who ranged in age from 20 months to 17 years. He entered the service in July 1944, enlisting in the Navy, training at Naval Station Great Lakes and at Naval Station Newport. Lyle left Boston on the newly commissioned cruiser USS St. Paul serving in the rank of Fireman First Class in May '45. He saw action in Japan's home waters and was on the St. Paul in Tokyo Bay when Japan signed the terms of surrender in Sept. 1945. After occupation service in Japanese waters and in Shanghai, the St. Paul returned to the U.S. in January '46, where Lyle dis-embarked, was honorably discharged, and returned to civilian life.Lyle then worked for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad for 8 years as a gandy dancer and then as a section foreman. He met Mildred Peterson at a dance at the old National Guard Armory in Brookings and was united in marriage to her on April 18, 1952 in Sioux Falls. They made their first home in Lake Preston, where their 3 children were born.After Mildred's father died, the family moved in 1956 to the farm Mildred grew up on northeast of Brookings. Like many farmers of that era, they raised beef and dairy cattle, pigs, sheep, and chickens. They later specialized in beef cattle, specifically Angus and Charolais. Lyle was able to share many farm duties and stories with Mildred's brother Robert, who farmed and lived with his family, in the early years, on the farm next to Lyle and Mildred.Lyle and Mildred retired in 1990 and bought a house in Brookings. They enjoyed traveling to Hawaii, Vegas, California, and closer spots, and were active in church, and in the wellness and walking programs at SDSU. Lyle worked part-time as a driver for the Brookings AgFirst Farmer's Coop for a number of years after retirement. He was primary caregiver for Mildred during her struggles with Alzheimer's until her admission to a nursing home in 2008. Due to diabetic complications, Lyle lost his right leg on the day of his wife's funeral, Veteran's Day in 2009, and lost the other leg a year later. He was admitted to Brookview Manor on his 87th birthday, moved to The Neighborhoods at Brookview in 2013 and lived there until being admitted to the Brookings Hospital on November 8th, 2013, where he passed away on November 10, 2013.Lyle was mostly a quiet, unassuming man, a hard worker who was happiest when planting or harvesting crops, watching TV, playing old records, reading, or doing picture puzzles with family, then going to social functions with Mildred after retirement. On the farm, in the winter, after Mildred went back to work, he became the chief cookie-baker and supper-starter. He loved his kids and grandkids, and liked to tease them, as well as the workers he met later at Brookview. Lyle offered assistance to distressed travelers and neighbors, pulling many a driver out of snowdrifts, as well as out of mud holes during the county road rebuilding project in front of the farm, all without complaint.Lyle is survived by sons Howard (Cheryl) and Kevin of Brookings; brothers Cliff (Lori) of White and David of Brookings; sister Marge (Alton) Quam of Volga; grandchildren Andy and Kristi Finkhouse of Rapid City, Destiny, Josiah, and Jeremiah Jorenby of Brookings, and Hope Folkens of Brookings; as well as several in-laws, nieces and nephews.He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife Mildred; daughter Cynthia Finkhouse; brothers Donald, Carroll, Burt, and John; and sisters Betty Bovee and Sharon Watt.
John E. Jorenby was born on October 29, 1934 in Volga, SD to Norman and Stella (Waage) Jorenby. He grew up and attended school in the Volga area. After finishing school, he served in the US Army. John spent his career working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in South Dakota and California before transferring to the Bureau of Land Management which led him to work in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. After retiring, he moved to the cabin he built in Trout Creek, Montana but eventually found his way back to Wyoming. 
THE SMALL BOY has been defined as an appetite completely surrounded by noise and dirt. Saturday, in the canyons of the supermarket, Mrs. Lyle Jorenby's small son, silent and scrubbed, fitted only the first part of that definition as he wishfully stopped at the rack of cool-aid drink powder envelopes and then beamed a cinamascope-wide smile as his mother selected several envelopes.
Awarded Certificate For ContributionA second article reads:
Mannheim, Germany - Sgt Carroll O. Jorenby, son of Mrs. Stella Jorenby, Volga, was awarded a certificate of appreciation recently by his organization, the 63rd Tank Battalion, for making a major contribution to the Armed Forces March of Dimes Campaign for 1951.
The certificates were awared ____ll members of the battalion, ___h is performing occupation ___n Germany, who contributed $10 or more in the fight against infantile paralysis.
Sgt. Jorenby, a tack mechanic in Company B, by his contribution of $10 to the worthy cause aided the tank battalion in reaching a total collection of $4,187.85 for the campaign, an average of $5.70 for every officer and man assigned to the unit. The total collected was one of the highest for battallion-sized units in the European Command.
The certificate, signed by Lieut. Col. Creighton W. Abrams, Jr., commanding officer of the 63rd Tank Battallion, says that Sgt. Jorenby is commended for his display of generosity and charity in the March of Dimes campaign and closes with the statement: "By your action you have proven that the American Soldier is willing to protect the citizens of his country against all foes, of which infantile paralysis is one of the most deadly."
(Editor's note: How many of us deserve certificates of merit for what we did in the March of Dimes campaign? If the boys do the fighting, we might at least pay the bills.)
2 Armored Men Receive Awards
Fort Hood, Tex. - For outstanding performance of duty during recently completed Exercise Three Pairs at Fort Hood, seven officers and seven enlisted men of the 2d Armd Div. were recognized with special awards.
In a ceremony following the exercise critique, Maj. Gen. W. H. S. Wright, 2d AD commander, presented the Croix de Caliche and the Order of the Armadillo to 14 men.
The awards were authorized by the exercise director and were designed to parallel the Silver and Bronze Star Medals taht are given for valor in combat.
The higher of the two awards the Croix de Caliche was given to Maj. Marvin L. Butcher, 37th Armor; Lt. Don E. Hillier Jr., 50th Inf.; MSgt. Manuel Madruga, 51st Inf., and Sgt. Kenneth E. Lee, 15th Cav.
Those receiving the Order of the Armadillo were: Lt. Col. Charl__ C. Clayton, 66th Armor; Capt. ___ T. Undercoffer, 15th Cab.; Lt. ___ J. Gruber, 58th Inf.; Lt. Theodore S. Wilkins, Hq Combat Command C; Lt. Michael R. Rodman, 16th Arty.; SFC Carroll O. Jorenby, 50th Inf.; SSgt. Robert L. Lockart, 14th Arty.; Sgt. Bernard F. Willis, Hq.. CCB; Sp4 William R. Moore, 78th ___y and PFC David C. Kinney __ __y.
55 years ago 1955The intersting part of this is that cousin Shari, from the Laabs side of my family, recently mentioned this fire at the farm. Here's what Shari remembers:
... The farm home of Mrs. Stella Jorenby on the west side of Lake Campbell was destroyed by fire. ...
When [Stella] first moved to the Lake Campbell farm, the house was an old structure that had once served as a hotel and post office for the town of Lake City, a town that did not survive. Her house was the last remnant of the town, though the farmhouse I lived in had an addition that was said to have come from a house in Lake City. Sometime in the mid fifties, the Jorenbys installed an oil or gas furnace in the basement. The sons were doing the work themselves and unfortunately did not vent the furnace. The first time it was fired up, it burned the house down in the middle of the night. They replaced the house with a prefab ranch house that was not completed on the inside. They spent many years completing that house.Shari's brother Doug remembered the fire a little differently:
According to [Doug] the fire occurred in the daytime, and the Brookings fire truck drove into our yard looking for their farm. Although our farms abutted, they were not connected by a road, so the firetruck had to go about four miles farther to get there and of course were too late to save anything. Doug says that the Jorenbys had bought a wood-burning furnace, not an oil furnace, and that they intended to burn corncobs in it. For that reason they had had the cornsheller deposit the cobs in their basement, rather than in a pile in the yard. Of course the basement full of corncobs was great tinder for the fire.To my Jorenby cousins, can anyone verify the details of this fire for me?
