Tara Dee Hough died on Saturday, April 8th in her home in Garretson of natural causes. She was born on July 11, 1955 in Jamestown, North Dakota. She spent many formative years in Northfield Minnesota. Her family owned the famous restaurant Zorbas and she started working there at 12 years of age. She was active in school and had a lifelong love of horses and animals. In school she was both a cheerleader and was in high school theater, including taking a lead role. She enjoyed cycling, was a skydiver and loved her Volkswagen beetle.
After her parents’ divorce, her mother moved the family frequently all across the country. She graduated high school in 1973 from Canyon High School in Canyon County California. She enlisted in the United States Air Force shortly thereafter and served for four years, reaching the rank of Senior Airman and working as an Air Traffic Controller at the Strategic Air Command Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska.
After her service in the Air Force she took to working professionally with horses, working at the Kay Meredith Farms and also managing the Grant Ranch in northern California.
In the 1990s she went back to school and by 1996 she had graduated with a Bachelor’s of History and also completed a Master’s in Business Management from the San Jose State University of California.
Degree in hand she began the next phase of her working life, taking jobs for various firms as a government contractor in Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota and finally EROS Data Center in rural Garretson, South Dakota in 2019.
This she did until she finally retired from that professional sphere, though she continued to work part time at Big Ern’s Sports Cabin, and volunteering her time as a proofreader and photojournalist at the Garretson Gazette. She also joined and was active in the Henry G. Fix Garretson American Legion Post #23, and was serving as the Legion’s Chaplain at the time of her death. She volunteered her time to assist with the local meals on wheels programs and was an active donor to the food pantry and local pet rescue groups, specializing in fostering and placing housecats with families.
She is survived by her mother Jeanne Hough and sister Camille Nelson of Albert Lee Minnesota, her brother Ian Hough of Commerce City, Colorado, cousin Mitchell Stromme of Faribault, Minnesota and by Aarryon Flores-Martinez of Colorado to whom she was a foster parent and legal guardian. She also leaves behind a large number of friends in the community.
Her sister Camille said that she thinks one of the many of the things that initially attracted Tara to Garretson was their childhood experiences in Northfield, MN as they have Jesse James Days events there as well. Both Camille and Ian said they were grateful for the outpouring of friendship, support and acceptance that Tara received in the community, and both believe that after a lifetime of living from place to place, she finally and truly found a home here in Garretson.
Tara always believed in paying it forward, and if her friends in the community are so moved, in lieu of flowers please donate to the All Cats Rescue or the Garretson Food Pantry in her name.
A celebration of Tara’s life will be held at the Henry G. Fix American Legion Post #23 at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 5. It will be followed afterward by full Military Honors from the Henry G. Fix Post’s Honor Guard on the green beside the post. Tara Hough’s ashes will be laid to rest at the veteran’s cemetery in Sioux Falls.
