Leon Haskins | 1928 - 2024
Obituaries-Pierre / Posted Oct 9, 2024 | 4:55 PM / 125 views
PIERRE, SD – Leon Haskins, 96, of Pierre, passed away on October 6, 2024, at Avera St. Mary’s Hospital.
Funeral service will be 2:00pm on Friday, October 11, 2024 at Community Bible Church in Pierre, SD. Visitation will be for one hour prior to the funeral service at the church.
Edwin Leon Haskins was born to Fred and Selma Haskins on March 2, 1928, in Quanah, Texas. Leon grew up in Kiowa County, Oklahoma, and graduated from Gotebo High School in 1946. On November 23, 1950, Leon married Bernice Nadine Eskew, and they were blessed with three children: Patty, Rex, and Leonda.
After farming and building roads and dams with his brother in Oklahoma, Leon moved his family to a farm in Sully County in 1968. Together with his son, Rex, he built a successful farming operation in central South Dakota.
Leon was a member of Community Bible Church and served on the building committee during the development and construction of the Family Life Center. An advocate for production agriculture, he served on the South Dakota Wheat Commission from 1982-1986 and the Governor’s Commission on Taxation in 1988. He also assisted in the development of the Northern Crops Institute in Fargo, North Dakota, and the SDSU West River Ag Center in Rapid City.
Leon’s legacy will not be highways in Oklahoma or wheat fields in South Dakota. Instead, it will be his nearly 74-year marriage to Nadine, his example of faithfulness to Christ in times of suffering and difficulty, and the love and care he showed for his family, friends, neighbors, and employees.
Leon is survived by his wife, Nadine; daughter, Patty (Michael) Ogan, son, Rex (LeAnn) Haskins, and son-in-law, Terry Beastrom, all of Pierre; his grandchildren, Colin (Sara) Ogan, Krista (Douglas) Stevens, Justin (Roseanna) Ogan, Jesse (Sarena) Beastrom, Derrick Haskins, and Lindsey (TJ) Philips; nine great-grandchildren, Ethan Ogan, Nyah Ogan, Corbin Beastrom, Cooper Beastrom, Maddox Ogan, Stella Beastrom, Kady Ogan, Kuyper Philips, and Brooklyn Philips; sisters-in-law, Charline Schantz and Verla Jones; and many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his daughter, Leonda, his parents, mother and father-in-law, his siblings and their spouses, his brothers-in-law, and a sister-in-law.
