Mildred Matters, age 88, died Sunday, September 19, 2010, at the United Retirement Center in Brookings. Interment will take place at a later date in Arizona.

Mildred F. (Hemmingsen) Matters was born May 21, 1922, at Brookings, South Dakota, to Frederik and Nelsina (Petersen) Hemmingsen. She grew up and attended school in Brookings, and received a B.S. degree in chemistry from SDSU. She worked for Standard Oil Company in New Jersey. She married James Matters in Ames, Iowa. The couple lived in Iowa and Arizona where Mildred worked as a chemist in water quality for the State of Arizona. James died in 1978, and Mildred moved to Brookings in 2002. She was active in environmental causes.

Survivors include a daughter, Kristine Chapman, of Englewood, Colorado; a sister, Helen Hemmingsen, of Brookings; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband; a son, Stephen; a brother, Harry; and a sister, Lily.