| Famous and distinguished people from, or having lived in South Dakota |
| The Governors of South Dakota are included in this group. |
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| DeeCort Hammitt (Jan. 6, 1893 - Aug. 24, 1970 |
 DeeCort Hammitt was born in Spencer, South Dakota. He was the son of Franklin Sylvanus & Mae Montgomery (Martin) Hammitt. When he was a boy the family moved to Alcester, where he became an accomplished professional musician, composer, music publisher, and band leader.
In 1921, he became the first Director of the Alcester Community Band. The fame of the band grew, and it was named the official South Dakota State Band. They played for President Calvin Coolidge when the Summer White House was located in the Black Hills in 1927.
Hammitt published many songs including "To A Prairie Lullabye," recorded by the early Lawrence Welk Band; "The Roundup March," recorded by the U.S. Navy Band; and "Hail, South Dakota," adopted as the official state song, in 1943.
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| Hail! South Dakota! - Written by DeeCort Hammitt - Composed by DeeCort Hammitt |
| Hail! South Dakota, A great state of the land,
Health, wealth and beauty, That's what makes her grand;
She has her Black Hills, And mines with gold so rare,
And with her scenery, No other state can compare. |
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| Come where the sun shines, And where life's worth your while,
You won't be here long, 'Till you'll wear a smile;
No state's so healthy, And no folk quite so true,
To South Dakota. We welcome you. |
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| Hail! South Dakota, The state we love the best,
Land of our fathers, Builders of the west;
Home of the Badlands, and Rushmore's ageless shrine,
Black Hills and prairies, Farmland and Sunshine.
Hills, farms and prairies, Blessed with bright Sunshine. |
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| Roy Braxton Justus (1901-83) |
| As a high school student in Avon, South Dakota, Roy Justus displayed his cartoon comments on World War I
in a local drugstore window. Beginning in 1924, Justus worked as an editorial cartoonist for the Sioux City Tribune, to which
he returned after brief stints in Washington, D.C. He contributed to a political cartoon syndicate for Midwest weeklies and later
worked in New York on the art staff of the Associated Press. When the Tribune merged with the Sioux City Journal,
Justus served as an editorial cartoonist until 1944. That year, he became editorial cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star,
on which he served until his retirement in 1975. A donation by the Minneapolis Star of more than sixty-five hundred Roy Justus
cartoons was supplemented in 1988 by a gift of Mrs. Roy Justus of fifty-one scrapbooks, original cartoons, and awards. |
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| George Stanley McGovern, |
 a Representative and a Senator from South Dakota; born in Avon, Bon Homme County, S.Dak., July 19, 1922; attended the public schools of Mitchell, S.Dak., and Dakota Wesleyan University, 1940-1942; enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps in June 1942, flew combat missions in the European Theater, and was discharged from the service in July 1945; returned to Dakota Wesleyan University and graduated in 1946; held teaching assistantship and fellowship at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., 1948-1950, receiving his Ph.D. from that university in 1953; professor of history and government at Dakota Wesleyan University 1950-1953; executive secretary of South Dakota Democratic Party 1953-1956; member of Advisory Committee on Political Organization of Democratic National Committee 1954-1956; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-fifth and Eighty-sixth Congresses (January 3, 1957-January 3, 1961); was not a candidate for renomination in 1960, but was unsuccessful for election to the United States Senate; appointed special assistant to the President January 20, 1961, as director of the Food for Peace Program, and served until his resignation July 18, 1962, to become a candidate for the United States Senate; elected to the United States Senate in 1962; reelected in 1968 and 1974 and served from January 3, 1963, to January 3, 1981; chairman, Select Committee on Unmet Basic Needs (Ninetieth Congress), Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs (Ninety-first through Ninety-fifth Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the U.S. Senate in 1980; unsuccessful candidate for Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 and 1984; unsuccessful Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1972; lecturer and teacher; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Agencies in Rome, Italy, 1998-2001; awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on August 9, 2000; appointed United Nations Global Ambassador on World Hunger in 2001. More McGovern |
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| Ben Reifel (1906-1990) |
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| Courtesy of SD State Historical Society |
South Dakotan elected Ben Reifel to the United States House of Representatives in 1960. Mr. Reifel was the first American Indian from the state to serve in Congress. Benjamin Reifel was born in Parmelee in 1906. His mother was a Brulé Lakota. His father was a German American.
The Badlands
Visitor Center was rename The Ben Reifel
Visitor Center in 1959.
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