Dorothy Thelma (Wilkens) Pearson, 92 passed away on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, at the Southwest Healthcare Services Hospital in Bowman, ND.

A celebration of life services for Dorothy will be held on Monday, June 8, 2026, at 10:00 AM MDT at the Bowman Lutheran Church with Terry Bagley officiating, followed by a private family burial at a later date. A family and friends service will be held at 7:00 PM MDT on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at the Krebsbach/Kulseth Funeral Home.

Dorothy's graveside service will be live-here October 22, 2026 at 1:00 pm.

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Dorothy was born on her parents farm in Wilkens Township in the Badlands of Slope County North Dakota on June 8, 1933, to John and Thelma (Moore) Wilkens, where she joined an older brother John Cecil Wilkens.

While growing up on the farm she did not have any other girls to play with, so always attempted to keep up with her older brother Cecil and cousin Morris Wilkens. This led to many interesting adventures while "keeping up with the boys" and as a result, her mother placing her in coveralls.

She attended grade school for the first seven grades at the Brown school just south of the farm. To get to school some days Dorothy and her brother rode the pet goats. She stayed in Amidon with her cousin Raymond Wilkens and attended the eighth grade there. For her freshman and sophomore years of high school she attended Sentinel Butte High School, then moved to Bowman for the junior and senior year at Bowman High School, graduating in 1952 as salutatorian.

She should have graduated in 1951 but stayed home a year after graduating from the seventh grade to help take care of her grandmother, who was suffering from cancer. While staying in Bowman and going to high school, she roomed above the First National Bank and worked cleaning a home and for Gene Langley as a waitress at his restaurant to raise money for her schooling.

Dorothy expressed an interest in a few career fields after graduation that included being a nurse, an airline stewardess, and a legal secretary, but things did not work out, so she went to Dickinson State Teachers College for a two-year teaching certificate. While there she roomed with Dorothy Soreide and Anne Tysver. Her first year of teaching was at the school located on the old 777 Ranch of Claude and Bud Brown on the river in NW Slope County. Her second year of teaching was at White Lake School east of Amidon. It was while teaching here that she formally met and dated her future husband, Edgar Pearson, who was a County Commissioner at that time.

Edgar and Dorothy were married at her parents farm on October 8,1954 and moved to Edgar's home in Cash Township. To this marriage three boys were born: Dean, Glenn and Alan. Edgar and Dorothy made their lives on the farm until 1979, when on vacation to Alaska to visit their son Dean, who was in the USAF, Edgar passed away. Dorothy stayed on the farm until 1982 when she sold the farm and moved the house into Bowman. Her mother, Thelma, lived with her until she passed away in 1991 and then Dean's family moved into the house and made an apartment downstairs for her.

Dorothy worked for 32 years at the Bowman Nursing Home and spent many hundreds of hours volunteering and helping to get the Pioneer Trails Regional Museum established into the facility it is today. Dorothy was very active in community organizations and events and was always involved with helping others. Some of the organizations she was involved with were: The Rhame Wild Rose Club, The Sheets School District Board, Slope County Special Education Board, The Bowman Cemetery Association, Bowman County Historical Society Board, North Dakota Genealogical Society Board and Preservation ND Board. Some of her lasting accomplishments can be seen as the Slope Saga history book, the mapping and measuring the Bowman County Protestant Cemetery and receiving the 2002 Excellence in Local History Award from the ND State Historical Society.

Dorothy has been a local and family historian and an avid book reader and researcher, including having her own library in the basement. She handwrote a family history book for each of her children and grandchildren as well as her nieces and nephew. She also established a family genealogy collection at the State Historical Society. She was a gifted seamstress sewing clothes for the family, a gardener, and storyteller along with baking and decorating cakes in many shapes with all the requested details and for her weekly homemade bread, (which the recipe called for 21-cups of flour). She was a kind and deeply gifted person who impacted in some way, everyone she met. It is in these traits that she leaves her legacy behind. Her last donation was to give her body to science at the UND Medical School when she passed away.

Mom believed what good is a life not lived for others? Even when mom had to sell some of her possessions, she still gave to others. Mom expressed love contrary to this world, having no regrets of not having things in this life. Yes, mom was an amazing woman: the reason for this was the time she spent every morning seeking the Lord for guidance for the day and again spending time with Him every evening reading His Word and thanking Him for the day.

Dorothy is survived by her children Dean (Melody), Bowman; Glenn (Mary), Grand Junction ,CO.; and Alan (Alice), Missoula, MT. and her grandchildren Michael and Jeffery Pearson, Bowman; Todd (Kristie) Pearson, Colorado Springs, CO; and Tim (Robin) Pearson, Grand Junction, CO.

She was preceded in death by her husband Edgar, parents John and Thelma Wilkens, and brother and sister-in-law Cecil and Beverly Wilkens.

Memorials are asked to be given in her memory to the Pioneer Trails Regional Museum in Bowman, ND.