Syblann Gullickson (2018)

Gullickson, 88, died April 15 at Banner Baywood Heart Hospital after a short illness.

Syb Smith was born in Bottineau, N.D., on Dec. 9, 1929. The family lived in Bismarck, Minot and Casselton before settling in Grand Forks, where she graduated from high school. She graduated from St. Cloud, Minn., State Teachers College in 1952.

She married Will Gullickson on June 3, 1951, and they lived in Troy, Ala., and Willmar, Minn., before moving to Fargo, N.D., and then Moorhead, Minn. He died in 1990.

Gullickson started work in the 1960s as an award-winning newspaper features writer, columnist and editor at The Forum in Fargo and became editor of the Lifestyle section in 1978. She was known for writing everything from fashion reports to stories on social issues. She was active in the North Dakota Press Women, serving as president of the group, and receiving the organization’s Communicator of Achievement Award in 1990.

She retired in 1995 and moved to Mesa to live in the house on Billings Street in Dreamland Villa that she had helped her mother, Bertha Smith, select in the 1970s.

Over the years, she was active in shuffleboard, bocce ball, ceramics, garden club and singles clubs. She was a Bingo volunteer and briefly served on the board of directors. Until last year, she volunteered weekly at the Dreamland Villa library. And until February, she delivered The Citizen on her block.

She belonged to the Church of the Masters Presbyterian Church in Mesa, and for about 20 years volunteered at the church food bank. She also was on the Chancel Committee.

She spent summers at Lake Washington, near Mankato, Minn.

She is survived by three sons, Glenn of Phoenix, Roger “Rock” of St. Charles, Mo., and Tedd of Burnsville, Minn.; one brother, Dickinson Smith of Bainbridge Island, Wash.; two grandsons, Dan of Omaha, Neb., and Matt of Eagan, Minn.; and two great-grandchildren, Matt’s children, Grace and Paul.

A local memorial will be/was at 10 a.m. May 18 at Church of the Master, 6659 E. University Drive, Mesa.

Services were April 23 in Moorhead, with burial at Riverside Cemetery in Fargo.