PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGES IN SERVICES!!!

Funeral services for Norma J. Grassrope, 69, of Lower Brule, SD will be 1:00 p.m., Thursday, December 28, 2023 at the Lower Brule Community Center in Lower Brule, SD with burial in the Holy Comforter Episcopal Cemetery at Lower Brule, SD.   Wake services will be 7:00 p.m., Wednesday at the Lower Brule Community Center in Lower Brule, SD.

Anyone wishing to follow, the procession will leave at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday from the funeral home.

View Folder Here

Norma Jean Grassrope was born in Brule County on January 19, 1954, to Garfield J. Grassrope and Doris L. Eagle Thunder. She shared her life with her companion Richard Goodface. She attended Lower Brule for her elementary school and High school years. She also attended Flandreau Indian School for a semester. Her class of 1972 was the first class to graduate from the new high school that was built. She went on to attend college at Saint Mary's in Spring field, Nilton Business College located in Sioux Falls, and Haskell Indian Nations University. In 1993 she obtained an Associates in Human Resources from Sinte Greska university. She and two other classmates were the first to graduate from Lower Brule Community College which is an established branch off Sinte Greska university. She was a dispatcher for the Lower Brule Police Department. From there she worked for the JTPA Program as a secretary. She transitioned over to Oto Kahe Teca (Vocational Rehabilitation Program) where she was a Case Manager. From 2004-2014 she served on the election board for the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. She also held a chair as a school board member.

Norma had a very strong spiritual belief and enjoyed participating in cultural practice and attending ceremonies, sharing, and making memories with her friends and relatives. Sobriety dances, bingo and trying her luck at the casino were some of the ways she enjoyed her free time. She also enjoyed being a homebody and binge-watching old shows such as little house on the prairie. She loved sharing stories about her life experiences and sharing stories from her childhood. She dedicated her life to raising her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was always thinking of others, and she was always willing to lend a helping hand when needed. She went above and beyond in helping others find their sobriety and their way back to the circle. It was a lot of the little things that she enjoyed in life.

Norma has 8 children, 6 surviving Craig Brave Eagle, January Colman-Johnson, Joseph Grassrope, Wind Goodface, Garfield Goodface and Leroy Goodface; her sister Jenny Grassrope; and many grandchildren, great grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.

She is preceded in death by her two children Galen Grassrope, Davita Grassrope, her grandson Tiernyn Goodface, Her parents Garfield J. Grassrope and Doris L. Eagle Thunder, Paternal Grandparents Joseph Grassrope, Bessie Brave Eagle, Her Maternal Grandparents Thomas Eagle Thunder, Madaline Tompkins-Eagle Thunder, Her brothers Harry E. Wright, Justin Grassrope.