PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Well before South Dakota First Lady Sandy Rhoden lived in the governor’s residence in Pierre overlooking Capitol Lake, swelteringly hot weather had prompted group plans to go swimming out in western South Dakota.
“We just kind of sat there by the dam and just visited and got to know each other a little bit, and then he dropped me off and asked me out,” Sandy Rhoden said. “So, we went that Thursday night. We went bowling and played pool and ate supper at the Country Kitchen. He finished my meal that I didn’t finish.”
That man who finished her meal more than 40 years ago was, of course, future South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden. The couple would eventually marry and have four boys along with seven grandchildren.
“For 43 years has been a sounding board and an adviser, so it was no different than any phase in our life, as a rancher or legislator or lieutenant governor, now as governor,” Larry Rhoden said. “Just a sounding board, somebody you can go to that you have absolute confidence in and somebody that’s had a lot of life experience.”
Education is a passion for South Dakota’s first lady.
“I might teach at a school with two classrooms, and then I usually did the K through 4 or the younger grades,” Sandy Rhoden said. “The last year I was in a rural school, I had transitional first through eighth.”
“She taught school for I don’t know how many years and did a lot of volunteer work in the community and was very active,” Larry Rhoden said. “Our community center in Union Center was, Sandy and another gal were the brainchild to get that project started.”
The first lady has coached basketball as well as track. And the governor’s office shares with KELOLAND News that while she won’t be boastful about it, she’s also a skilled artist.
“If we had a theme, whether it’s in the mountains or in the ocean, I would pull out these rolls of paper and paint, like, a big mural,” Sandy said.
Before he was governor, her husband served in both the House and Senate in Pierre, holding different leadership roles.
“He knows I’ve been there with him for the last 20-some years in all kinds of legislation,” Sandy Rhoden said. “I mean, he was the kind of legislator that lost sleep … he took it very seriously.”
Now, her husband is governor, and instead of the Union Center area in western South Dakota, they live in the governor’s residence.
“It’s starting to feel more like home,” she said.
Some people may voice frustration or indifference when politics come up. For her, politics have to happen.
“They’re necessary,” Sandy Rhoden said. “I mean, these are the laws we live by every day.”
And as she serves as first lady, there is a chance to further learn about the state she’s called home her whole life.
“I guess what I enjoy probably the most are the opportunities to see things that we have in our state that we didn’t know existed,” Sandy Rhoden said. “Like, I really enjoy going with him on these opportunity tours.”
Through time spent sitting down and visiting with South Dakota’s first lady, a few themes emerge. One, she doesn’t crave the spotlight for the attention it brings. But she does appreciate her role alongside the governor in the public view.
“I just want to use my platform while I have it to just help make it a better state than it is already,” she said.
