LEAD, South Dakota — Dee Baker was living in the Black Hills before Deadwood was a tourism draw, before bikers decided Sturgis was their Mecca and before Potato Creek Johnny passed on.
The town of Lead declared December 23 Delores "Dee" Baker Day, in honor of Baker’s 100th birthday. Around 150 people dropped by Lewie’s Burgers and Brews to wish Baker well.
Often the life of the party at Lewie’s — where Baker’s daughter Shari Burleson works — Baker’s most recent foray into viral fame began when she dropped by on March 7 with Lewie Sternhagen, the bar’s namesake.
Burleson was waiting on a group from Nebraska and she mentioned her 100-year-old mother.
“So they wanted me to meet them, then they wanted a shot,” Baker told Cowboy State Daily in a phone interview facilitated by Burleson because Baker doesn’t hear so well over the phone.
One thing led to another and out came the shotski — a snow ski with five shot glasses mounted along its topsheet.
In a video later posted on Facebook, Baker joins four new friends from Nebraska in the shotski ritual of simultaneous consumption, lifting the ski and downing a shot made with butterscotch Schnapps known as a Slippery Nipple.
The video captures a scene with more crash helmets than an Evel Knievel family portrait. Audio from the viral video picks up Burleson asking, “ready mom…” before Baker is slow to the hoist and misses the in-unison downing of the shot.
“She slopped hers down the front of her blouse,” said Burleson. “And of course, she picked up the ski at the end and tried to get more out of it. So that was kind of funny.”
“I stuck my tongue in and I got the rest of it,” recalled Baker, who was given another shot, no crash helmet required.
Back around 1990, when the ski patrol at nearby Terry Peak Ski Area started the group shot tradition with a retired ski and five shot glasses attached, Lewie’s welcomed the addition of crash helmets.
“We always say it's in case they fall backwards and get hurt,” said Burleson.
In addition to Slippery Nipples, Burleson said her mother also enjoys Coors Light and eggnog and amaretto. Sometimes she likes tomato juice in her beer and she’s always loved to dance.
“I used to go to a lot of square dances and I went square dancing and the Schottische — the Seventh Step,” said Baker. “I done all of them when I was young.”
A Century In South Dakota
On the day Baker was born, Calvin Coolidge was in the White House and, in the Black Hills, no one was enforcing the national prohibition of alcohol.
"There was a law on the books that made alcohol illegal. But people just ignored it,” a Black Hills museum director told South Dakota Public Broadcasting in 2011.
Baker’s family lived in Okaton, South Dakota, at the time, but soon made their way to the Black Hills.
“I've always been in the Black Hills. I really never left,” said Baker. “We didn't have electricity in town until 1938. That I do know because we were so happy when we got a washing machine. We didn't have to wash by hand. We didn't have to scrub on a scrub board and do all that kind of stuff.”
Baker remembers voting for the first time in 1944.
“I think it was for Roosevelt, but I’m not sure,” she said.
That was around the time she married her first husband right out of high school.
“You think you're in love and don't know anything,” advised Baker. “Well, then you jump out of the skillet to the fire.”
This was back around when the Jackpine Gypsies — a local motorcycle club — got the idea to host a motorcycle rally in Sturgis.
“I went to the first ones, and there wasn't too many motorcycles, and there wasn't too many people on the benches,” said Baker. “I know all of my little family was on the benches and watching the motorcycles go on. They had just barely started.”
Now, when the motorcycling masses descend on the Black Hills for the annual Sturgis Rally in August, Baker sometimes gets treated like royalty.
“I got people texting me, taking pictures, and she's being escorted across the highway by a group of motorcycle riders,” remembered Burleson. “They stopped, got off their bikes and helped her across the street.”
Dee Baker remembers the earliest days of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. (Courtesy Shari Burleson) 
She is no longer allowed to drive, but Dee Baker remains on the move — by snowmobile and on horseback. (Courtesy Shari Burleson) 
She is no longer allowed to drive, but Dee Baker remains on the move — by snowmobile and on horseback. (Courtesy Shari Burleson) 
Around 150 people showed up to celebrate Dee Baker’s 100th birthday at Lewie’s Burgers and Brews. (Courtesy Shari Burleson) 
Like Potato Creek Johnny, the diminutive Dee Baker is a Black Hills legend in her own time. (Courtesy Shari Burleson)
Big Personality, Small Package
Potato Creek Johnny was a Welsh immigrant named John Perrett who stood 5 feet tall but cast a long, legendary shadow.
Likewise, Baker weighs around 90 pounds and stands barely over 5 feet tall. She remembers time spent with Potato Creek Johnny, who befriended Baker’s brother.
“He always hunted and panned for gold,” said Baker, recalling the man nicknamed for the creek where he found the largest gold nugget ever pulled from the Black Hills… or so the legend goes.
“He’d go with Potato Creek Johnny and go pan gold,” said Baker.
Like Potato Creek Johnny, locals wave and stop to chat with Baker when she goes shopping or hobnobs at Lewie’s. Baker reciprocates the community’s admiration for her by crocheting gifts around the holidays. For Easter, she’s busy transforming yarn into little bunnies.
“She’s made 310 of them,” said Burleson, noting that Halloween is Baker’s favorite holiday because she loves dressing up and greeting all the children at her door.
“She's kind of on a main block right there and she'll hand out candy from just like 6 until 8,” said Sternhagen, who has known Baker his whole life. “She's got a big storm door on there. So she's opening that door, opening that door, and then she gets worn out, and then she goes, ‘I'm done.’ I mean, she looks forward to it like you wouldn't believe, and then she gets worn out, and says, ‘Ah bullshit, I'm done, I'm done. Turn off the lights.’”
On her 100th birthday, Baker rode a horse. On her 91st birthday, she rode a snowmobile. And when she wants to go hang out at Lewie’s, Burleson and Sternhagen are there to give her a ride because she’s no longer allowed to drive.
“She's Mrs. Magoo. She's got a lead foot,” said Burleson, recalling the time she inadvertently tried to elude authorities. “She passed the police car coming into Deadwood. It had blue and red lights and the grill flashing, and she thought it was some punk kid and she wasn't gonna let nobody pass her.”
Baker told the cop her back hurt and she was on her way to physical therapy.
“And he's like, ‘Well, slow down and I hope your back feels better.’ And he let her go,” said Burleson, laughing at the memory.
When asked about her secrets to a long life, Baker laughs as well, remembering how she never smoked because her mother smoked. Whenever Baker got an earache, her mother applied cigarette therapy.
“She'd lay me down and blow a big old huff-a-puff of smoke in my ear, and then throw a pillow over it,” said Baker. “I used to get so mad.”
Those were the days: cigarettes were a panacea, sliced bread was a new-fangled invention and if you wanted ice for your drinks, you got a big block cut from the river.
Baker recognizes she’s a unique vessel of deep memory, but she’s a little embarrassed by the attention.
“I didn't think I was a queen or a hero,” said Baker. “I have 7 brothers and sisters and they're all dead. And I'm the only one that's still hanging in there.”
Contact David Madison at david@cowboystatedaily.com
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
