- This is a production of SDPD.

- First Ladies, Sandy Rhoden.

Welcome to In the Moment.

It's so nice to sit down with you in person.

Thank - You.

- It's been an adventure.

Yeah.

It Has, and tell us a little bit about these first few weeks and the transition to, to leadership for your husband and really what that meant for you behind the scenes.

- Well, you know, Larry's always been a leader and always interested in involved and pretty much in the know of what happens.

So for him, I don't think it was that much of a transition except for just magnified, you know, the responsibility is more, the time that he has to put in is more, and, but yet he, he loves the challenge.

He is just that type of guy that just wants to go head on and, and able to give it a goal.

- What has that been like for you over the years, especially as that responsibility has gone from school board, which he mentioned several times to Lieutenant Governor and really the awareness that the next step very well could be governor for him.

What's the journey been like for you?

- Well, you know, it's been pretty gradual.

Those were just kind of increments that led up to being governor.

And I think being lieutenant governor was very helpful because he did have insight to a lot of things and was involved in some issues that were more important maybe than they were to him as a legislator.

So it has, it's been a pretty gradual transition, I would say.

It's just a little more intense now.

And, and he, he does feel the weight on his shoulders more now than he ever has.

But he's always, he, he was kind of born with that leadership gift, I think, where he's willing and ready as the load gets heavier.

- Tell me what you think your role is, support to him over the years, is how do you, how do you come alongside him essentially and be there for him during the tough times, the losses, the bad days and the successes?

- Well, first of all, I try to keep up as much as I can with what he is dealing with.

I don't know everything.

I'm not, you know, informed of every little detail, but I do try to be in the know, so I can be aware of the degree of stress that he might be under.

- You're walking down the staircase for an inauguration.

You have a beautiful dress.

Your husband's on your arm.

What's going through your mind as you take that walk and the lights are on you and the cameras are on you, and everyone's watching and you're thinking, what?

- I'm thinking, wow, this is kind of ridiculous.

This is, I mean, it's some people would maybe dream of something like that.

And for me it was, it was really good.

It was just one of the steps that we take to step into this role.

And I was just so grateful.

There's so many people that were there who were there to support us and were happy to see Larry in that role.

And my family, you know, just the pride that many of our friends and family had and shared with us was just, it was really a fun, it was really a fun time.

Yeah.

There were all kinds of people that were just so kind and did so many nice things that you just felt like you were there celebrating life, basically with your, your best friends, relatives.

And - He spoke that day, and I think I've heard him say it more than once, but were, I thought it was a sincere and genuine request for the people of South Dakota to keep you in their prayers.

What does that mean for you to know that many people will take that request seriously and will keep you in their prayers on a weekly or even daily basis?

It's - Everything.

We wouldn't be where we are and Larry wouldn't be, you know, enjoy the gifts that he has or myself without the Lord.

And we, you know, our faith is very strong and we rely on him and we, you know, he guides our steps.

There's things we've tried to decide and we wait.

We wait to see how he guides us and where he takes us.

So that's basically how our decisions are made.

And so when people are praying and we're strong believers that when two or more are gathered in his name, you know, he is there and he, he is answered so many prayers that you don't, you don't ignore that.

That is just our life.

And, and the people that pray for us, they mean a lot to, to us.

- You don't have to answer this if it's private, but I'm, I would love to know how that shows up in your family.

Is that something that's just you, you're talking about it every day?

Is it that you're setting aside time every day to pray together?

Is it a quiet thing, but you might worship on a Sunday?

Has it show up in your daily life?

What would you, what would you share publicly about that?

- Well, a lot of it depends on our schedules and so forth, but we, you know, we always pray before our meals.

We go to church on Sundays.

I've served as youth director for two or three decades.

You know, we, the church, our church is a small church of believers.

They are really our church family.

And so it's really not so much church.

It's really our faith.

Larry's a deacon in our church, which means, you know, they trust him.

And that's not a position that we choose lightly.

And we are, we are Baptists, Bible believing Baptists.

And we do, we do pray more, I would say individually, but if there are big decisions, we'll pray together.

You know, it wasn't, it was probably within the last two weeks I saw Larry on his knees by the bed and he was praying.

So it is, it's just integrated in our lives.

It's not the same every day, but it's, but you know, he's always there.

He's omnipresent.

- I wanna get to know you a little bit more and go back to where you were from and some of the things before Larry Rhoden came into your life that were important to you growing up in South Dakota.

- Well, I was born in Philip, South Dakota, And I'm going to probably say we, because I have a twin sister.

So when we were eight, well, first of all, I had a twin sister, and I had a older sister, Marletta, and a younger brother named Jack.

And when we were eight, we moved to Madison because my mom just was ready for something different, something new.

My dad was an ag teacher and he, they probably had more pictures of his ag kids than they did to us as children because he, he kind of made a, a legend out of himself by, you know, he went and visited their ranches out there, looked at their crops, they planted different kinds of seeds, and he was just the ultimate ag and FFA leader there.

And my mom was a second grade teacher.

She taught piano lessons.

And so when we were eight, we moved to Madison and we lived in the country and had four horses because our older sister was, you know, crazy about horses.

So we lived in the country in a big farmhouse for a while.

We went to a country school, but it was like, I think there was even high school the first year we went.

And then it turned to a K through sixth.

And then, then we went to Madison into town for sixth.

Well, sixth grade we went to town because of the big blizzard where we actually had snow up to the top of our telephone pole.

So yeah, that was a telephone pole that we walked to the top of on a snow bank.

So our sixth grade year, we, they bought a trailer house and they moved it to, into Madison, and then mom drove to Humboldt to teach school and dad taught at the high school there.

And so, yeah.

And then we graduated from Madison High School and we were always going to go to SDSU because our dad at one time was the student body president there.

And that would've made him very happy.

But it was just so convenient to be six blocks from Dakota State University.

So we stayed there and went to college.

And I knew when I was six years old, I wanted to be a PE teacher, so I majored in physical education, as did Debbie.

And so as we went along, then my art teacher said, well, you really should pick up an art major.

'cause that was my minor.

So Debbie graduated with an elementary and PE double major, and then she graduated a year ahead of me and I stayed and picked up an art major.

So she got a job, a teaching job out in the country near Union Center.

And at that time there were 14 or 15 rural schools, very rural, very spread out.

And it was about two, well, about a year later I met Larry through Debbie because they coached basketball together and they played softball together and things like that.

And so one hot afternoon, they, my older sister and I had gone out to visit Debbie.

And one really hot afternoon we went swimming at this dam because it was like 105 degrees.

And Debbie lived in a trailer house.

They called it a teacher ridge where you lived, where you taught.

And I don't believe there was air conditioning at all.

It was like 105.

So Larry had said, if you guys ever wanna go swimming at this, I can take you to the dam if it gets too hot.

Or he just offered, so we're like dying of heat.

So we said, let's call Larry.

And so we got there and I bet we weren't there 10 minutes.

And the two of them, my older sister said, oh, I don't feel very good, Debbie, would you take me home?

And so they were gone before I realized I'm still here.

And it's just this Larry and I.

And so that's pretty much, we just talked and - Yeah.

Your first impression of him that day, - The, my, the very first time I met him was that winter when they would meet, all the young adults would meet to play volleyball in this red Al Hall.

And she had told me something about I should introduce you to him.

Well, he had just come from work and he was kind of dirty.

And I thought, okay, that's Larry, that's coach.

Okay.

But I was much more impressed when I met him that summer him at the softball fields.

- Yeah.

Six years old.

You wanna be a PE teacher?

Yeah.

How come?

What was so appealing to a 6-year-old about that?

- Well, I loved PE at school in Philip, and then at recess the boys played soccer.

And the only girls they allowed to play were Debbie and I.

And I think our best friend who was born on our birthday, I think she was allowed to, but we just, I don't know.

We, yeah, I think we, everything came easy to us and, and it was just fun to do the activities.

And - So then your coaching what?

Cheer and dance, - But what - Well, kinda, yeah.

You have a history then once, once you become a teacher.

Yes.

You're also a coach as well, right?

What did you coach?

- I, well, I coached my very first year of teaching.

I coached basketball.

- Okay.

- But that was only my first year.

That was at Dupree.

And then I married Larry and we moved to Union Center, and then my sister and I did, we called it tumbling.

Sure.

Basic gymnastic techniques.

But then we liked the diving and the, the fun stuff.

And at one time we had 80 girls in this little hall.

It was not gym size.

Yeah.

And so I did that a while.

She, she moved to Sturgis and taught there.

And then I kind of took a break and picked that back up.

And so I incorporated a little chair and dance and Tumbling and gymnastics.

And the kids really liked that.

I had - Lolly Forsyth, if you recognize that name, a well-known Lincoln High school coach in girls tumbling and gymnastics for my ad room teacher when I was in high school.

Oh.

I was not an athlete, but just being in her class to check in every morning.

The motivation that she brought to us every day to show up and do your best, she was always a coach.

So I guess what I'm getting at there is that being a PA teacher is about more than just, you know, having a healthy relationship with exercise.

It's also motivational in my experience.

Absolutely.

What's your experience with that?

- Yes.

I also, with another teacher started a track team out there, which is still going.

So I think I coached about 20 years and little Union Center, which was where everybody said, where's that?

Those kids would go and they would compete.

And we have a couple of trophies from four by one relays.

That was the only relay they gave a trophy to.

And we've won it a couple of times there in Sturgis.

And it's a huge track meet.

I mean, anybody from anywhere seems like they come to that meet the Jeff Schmidt track meet.

But my goal was, and I always emphasized just improving their own times, their own distances.

And I said, don't worry about what everybody else is doing when you go to your first track, meet the next time you, your second time.

Just see if you can improve that throw.

And I really focused in on personal best.

And I'd have kids come up so excited.

You know, you'd think they would one first place, but they were really excited because they said, I beat my personal best today through the best I've ever thrown.

And my, I felt like my job was just to teach them to love the sport and to find success, you know, within themselves.

So it was really kind of a twofold, I mean, I love track, I loved watching athletes perform well, yeah.

But it was also, man, I jumped, I jumped four foot two to today and could never clear forefoot before.

But, you know, that was exciting.

It's gratifying.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

Did you have role models growing up?

- You know, the only person I can think of that I really admired was my junior high, seventh grade PE teacher.

Mrs. Braskamp.

- Yeah.

- And she was pretty, she was soft spoken, but she made you happy to be there, you know, and not that the other ones were bad, there was just something about her that made me think she is, she just speaks softly to you and treats you with respect.

And I just noticed that, that that just makes you feel different when you're around someone that, and she was a cheerleader back, you know, in our days, and she'd show us jumps.

And so I just thought she's athletic too.

And yeah, I think she's the one that had the most impact on me.

- You mentioned being an art teacher, and of course we know there was a poem that was read as well, the inauguration that you had written, I believe.

- Do I - Remember that correctly?

Okay.

- Yes.

- So what's your artistic, do you have a, you know, do you, do you like reading poetry?

Do you like writing?

Do you have an artistic practice in some way that you would, that has meaning to you?

Well, - My, as far as a medium, what I figured out was that I really don't have one kind of medium other than kind of disposable mediums.

Like I would do murals for Bible school, whatever our theme was, if something was needed, I would do it.

I've never painted and tried to sell my paintings.

I'll do a painting as a gift, maybe like I did this Christmas for one of my daughter-in-laws.

She's a doctor and she seems to have everything she needs.

And when they got married, before they got married, she said, the only thing I'd really like is if you could paint a picture of Bear Butte.

And now they own some land out there.

Yeah.

At the base of Bear Butte.

And I thought, well, maybe this is the year that I paint her that picture - Paint.

- And so I did, and you know, I've painted on pumpkins for fundraisers, and I just realized, and I painted on a chicken coop instead of painting because it needed painting, I thought, I'm gonna just do a mural on it.

So I did that and I realized finally that nothing I do is really for a permanent thing except for a painting like for my daughter-in-law.

But yeah, poetry that kind of runs in my family, my mom's side.

I think my sister is good at poetry.

Both my twin sister and my older sister have written some pretty deep things.

We've got a son who, he's very well written.

He, he doesn't have a journalism major or anything like that, but he can really write well.

And I would say all of the boys, if and when they want to sit down and write are pretty gifted at that as well.

- What does it bring to you, you know, what does it, does it make your life, is it about, I guess, expression and that you, you have something to say, and this is a way to say it?

Or is it in about poetry itself being the words and the rhythm and the, what does it mean - To you?

Well, that's a good question, but I do feel like it's a way to convey thoughts that I wouldn't just be able to say, you know, and not the storyteller, but, but one, the year I decided to stop teaching, when our youngest was a year old, I decided I'm not going to go back to teaching.

So my sister who taught fourth grade in Madison, she actually was the one that started this little legislator program.

And since I was not teaching anymore, I still have four boys, you know, in high school and grade school and home.

And, but she asked, could you write a thank you poem to the legislators?

Because they write back and forth and they acknowledge them and they, they have a partner.

And so I said, well, I guess since I have nothing else to do, but, so I wrote a poem and I just found it the other day and in a binder, and it included all 105 legislators names.

And even today I'm going, I don't know who these legislators are, but at that time, when Larry first got in, that was his first year.

And so, because it was his adventure, I would come and stay.

I didn't live here, but I had the two boys that they were not in school yet.

And then the other two older boys.

And so I was really paying attention to the bills, to the legislators.

And when I read that, now I'm going, how did I, I knew every one of these legislators who they were, and it's hard to explain it, but some of them had last names that like flowers and Greenfield and And Mack McCracken, you know, big Mac and Ham, Senator Ham.

So I was able to put a lot of things together that I don't think I could do it today, but, and they felt seen.

Yeah.

They felt acknowledged.

And they had the secretary of this, the secretary of State, Joyce Hazeltine, she read the poem to the, to both houses to, yeah.

That's a good story.

Yeah.

- You have an opportunity now to take on initiatives or to have a voice in something you want people to pay attention to.

Do you have, have you decided what direction that might go in for you?

- Well, yes.

It's, it's a work in progress.

So I don't have a finished product right now, but I believe we're, I, I just had a group of ladies at the Mansion yesterday to do like a think tank with me because again, I, you know, I was born a twin and it's never, I've really had a hard time with I and me.

It's always a we thing.

Okay.

And of course, multiple minds are better than one.

So I, and they were so happy to do it.

They came over and basically what I can say is, I think I'm gonna call it South Dakota Rising.

And it has to do with mind, body, and soul and rising in that we are going to figure out what is good, find out what is good that we are doing now, and make it better.

And I wanna do a listening tour to begin with, but I'm not gonna listen to their woes and their problems.

I wanna go to these communities and ask them, so what's great about your community?

What's good?

You know, and how did, how did it get that way?

And I wanna turn it around a little bit so that I'm not, I'm not here to fix you, but with the mind, body, and soul, I'm hoping we can figure out some sort of a fun but good initiative to look at myself and see how I can improve in what I'm doing with my mind and my body and my soul like service.

You know, a lot of what will come out of it I'm hoping is service and understanding what's holding me back and what's holding us back.

And then just having to purpose.

It's things just don't happen.

We have to learn the purpose to do things that are good, but that's, it's hard to explain.

I've had the, an initiative as the second lady with South Dakota Kids Belong.

Okay.

And that is finding, fostering, yeah.

Finding enough foster families for kids and adoptive parents, for those kids that are up for adoption and available because every child really deserves a home.

Well, - I look very much forward to hearing some of the initiative on the listening tour.

Come back and tell us some of the things that you're hearing, the stories that inspire you.

- Yeah.

- And the unique, the unique stories from the towns across the state.

So you're welcome back anytime.

Thank you.

Huh?

Thank you for sitting down with us today.

Well, thank you for, for - Asking me.