PIERRE, SD – A life dedicated to teaching, coaching, and serving others began on March 25, 1935, when Cecil DeVere Johnson was born, in Gregory, South Dakota. As the sixth of nine children of Elmer and Martha “Baba” Johnson, he grew up on a farm outside Gregory. His parents, especially Baba, believed in the importance of education and hard work—Cecil took this philosophy to heart from the very beginning.
Cecil attended three rural grade schools from 1941 through 1948. He was an eager, inquisitive student, but on his first day of first grade, he came home with doubts about school because he was there all day and did not learn to read. Despite this setback, he went back to school and did learn to read. As his reading ability developed and his curiosity about the world outside the farm grew, he read all of the books available to him from his grade schools’ libraries. At home on the farm, Cecil read every chance he had, and his father had to roust “Bubbs” from his reading to do his chores. Thus, his lifelong love of reading, learning, and writing began, and Cecil soon found the classroom to be his second home, whether as a student or a teacher.
Cecil also made up his own language during his grade school years. He would talk to his younger siblings in this language and became frustrated when they could not understand and converse with him in it. His siblings say that his made-up language and his coding during his military service went hand in hand. At an early age, he learned about languages other than English through his reading because his parents did not speak their native languages of Swedish and German in their home.
From 1949 until his graduation in 1953, Cecil was a Gregory High School Gorilla. No school bus services ran from the farm to school, so he boarded in town in a private home (which cost about $10 month and he had to bring his own sheets!). He ate at the school cafeteria that provided three meals a day from Monday morning until Friday noon. High school provided more access to books and learning, and he could not get enough. As a freshman, he began earning extra cash by taking on the reading assignments for upper classmen and writing their book reports. Although he enjoyed and was adept in this work, he was persuaded to stop “helping” the upper classmen by his father and the principal during a trip to the principal’s office.
At the beginning of his high school years, Cecil and his siblings were considered “country kids,” so they were not expected to be scholarly or outstanding in any way, but these perceptions changed quickly once they saw Cecil’s intelligence and academic ability in the classroom and his strength and leadership on the football field. As a lineman, he lettered in football all four years in high school. He made great, and lasting, friendships during this time. Cecil met one friend, Jay Dooley, on the first day of his freshman year, and he played football side by side with Jay in both high school and college and cherished this friendship all of his life. With academics coming easily to Cecil, he also helped many of his football friends with their studies, tutoring them so they continued to be eligible to play football and eventually graduate.
After high school, Cecil began work as a laborer for a company contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lay concrete for the construction of Fort Randall Dam on the Missouri River. Although never one to shirk hard work, he decided he needed to find a way to get a college education because he did not want to spend the rest of his life working as a manual laborer, especially during the hot South Dakota summers. To earn financial assistance for tuition and educational expenses through the GI Bill, Cecil joined the U.S. Army as an infantry soldier in 1954 during the interwar years between the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He was a communications expert and a Morse Code operator and was one of the only soldiers who knew how to fire and clean every weapon that his company used. While in the Army, he was stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas, and Germany, and upon leaving the military, he attended Black Hills Teachers College, now Black Hills State University.
College life in the Black Hills was a joyful experience for Cecil, and, again, he balanced his academic studies with football. His sister Glenice was living in Spearfish and introduced Cecil to Black Hills Teachers College. Between 1956 and 1963, three or four Johnsons, including Cecil from 1956 to 1960, attended Black Hills Teachers College at the same time. When Jay Dooley found out where Cecil was, he contacted Cecil to have him save a place in his apartment.
Besides his course work, Cecil was into two things at Black Hills—football and the college newspaper. He played and lettered in football all four years earning a V-neck, pull-on letter sweater for the first letter, a cardigan letter sweater for the second letter, a blazer for the third letter, and the option to purchase a blanket with the fourth letter. His experience with the college newspaper inspired him as an educator to teach high school journalism classes that published stories all of Lyman County enjoyed for many years. In 1960, Cecil completed his student teaching in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and during this time, he was also instrumental in introducing the sport of wrestling to Belle Fourche High School.
Cecil graduated from Black Hills Teachers College in 1960 with a bachelor’s degree in education with a major in English and minor in physical education. He would go on to earn a master’s degree from Bemidji State University doing course work across three summers. His mother was proud that Cecil and seven of his siblings received their teaching degrees from Black Hills Teachers College and another of his siblings earned a degree in Veterinary Medicine.
Cecil met his wife Norma “Turp” Hupp in 1956 while attending college, and the couple married in 1959 and moved to Presho (Turp’s hometown), where in the fall of 1961, Cecil began a teaching and coaching career that would span decades at Presho High School and, later, Lyman High School.
As a Presho Wolf and a Lyman Raider, Cecil taught English literature, grammar, Greek mythology, journalism, and writing to hundreds of high school students, and, later in his career, he also taught English classes at Capital University in Pierre. He loved his students, and they loved him and his pithy remarks, like: “Ain’t ain’t a word.” Cecil was committed to helping his students take pride in themselves and develop the tools they needed to understand the world and to effectively communicate with the world around them. He was recognized for his outstanding service to his students through yearbook dedications, for example, the Class of 1963; the Teacher Who Makes a Difference Award; and the Presidential Scholars Program Teachers Recognition Award.
Cecil’s time spent with students extended well beyond the classroom lectures. He invested many hours as a class advisor, a tutor, and most of all a coach. He was head football coach in his early career and head track coach for decades. After he retired from school teaching, he continued to volunteer as an assistant coach and worked with the track team until his last year, at 90 years old. A legend in the South Dakota track world, Cecil’s familiar stance, leaning forward with his arms resting on a hurdle while watching athletes compete, will be remembered by many, especially during the Cecil Johnson Invitational at the track and field by the same name.
When Cecil and Turp moved to Presho, he settled into a community he treasured to raise their children, Orange and Coreen, and eventually help raise their grandsons, Cade and Bridger, who visited often and for much of the summer. Avid hunter, fisherman, and gardener, Cecil loved to be outdoors and be connected with nature. Any time he was hunting or fishing, he was in his best place, and he spent many happy hours fishing with friends and family, working with his hunting dogs, and hunting pheasants, especially at the family farm in Gregory. His favorite day of the year was opening day of deer hunting because he spent it with his son and grandsons. One of his hunting friends for many years was the game warden in Lyman County in the 1970s and 1980s, Floyd Gaarder. Floyd often enlisted Cecil’s help as back-up for patrols and poaching surveillance, and together they completed many projects aimed at preserving the wild and natural resources in the Lyman County area. During it all, Cecil always had a stock of candy bars or peanuts in his vehicle cubby or coat pocket.
Cecil was never more content than when he was having breakfast at Hutch’s; playing cards with friends, especially games of pitch; or working with his hands in his garden. Cecil spent many hours planning and planting his garden and then tending to his plants to keep weeds, pests, and wildlife at bay so that he could share his produce with family and friends. His favorite was sweet corn, which he eagerly awaited until harvest time. He would visit his garden several times a day to make sure the moisture was right and all was well.
In the quiet times at home, Cecil would settle in with Luna, his cat, on his lap and a glass of Old Crow bourbon in hand to read a good book, watch Chicago Cubs baseball, catch a Lyman Raiders game showing on YouTube, or check out the Weather Channel. A life well lived, Cecil DeVere Johnson passed away on Father’s Day, June 15, 2025.
Cecil is survived by his son, Orange (Kim) Johnson; daughter, Coreen Johnson (Tom Tomczyk); grandsons, Cade (Haley) Johnson and Bridger Johnson; great grandsons, Carson, Briggs, and Hyatt; Bill (Jean) Sorensen; brothers, Berle (Marcella) Johnson and Robert (Beth) Johnson; sister, Barbara (Chuck) Matson; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Elmer and Martha “Baba” Johnson; his wife, Norma; brothers, Derald, Virgil, and Dean Johnson; and sisters, Lorraine King and Glenice Brown.
Memorials on behalf of Cecil Johnson for the Lyman County Athletic Foundation can be sent to
P.O. Box 224, Presho, SD 57568. A private family memorial will be held at a later date.
Thanks for everything, Cec, ya done good!
