Hilda Neihardt

Hilda Neihardt (1916–2004) was one of her father John G. Neihardt's "comrades in adventure," and at the age of 15 accompanied him as "official observer" to meetings with Black Elk, the Lakota holy man whose life stories were the basis for her father's book, Black Elk Speaks and for her own later works.

She was born in Bancroft, Nebraska, on December 6, 1916, to her writer father and sculptor mother. In 1920 her extended family moved to Branson, Missouri, in the Ozark Mountains, then to Springfield and on to St. Louis in Missouri as her father's work changed.

Hilda Neihardt attended Southwest Missouri State Teachers' College in Springfield, Missouri, and Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

After graduation, she worked for the Swiss Consulate in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1944, she left the Consulate to join the WAVES. While in the service, she sang with the Ray Charles Orchestra on the "Waves on Parade" radio program broadcast from Hunter College in New York City. At her request she transferred to Pasco, Washington, where she served as a control tower operator.

She married Albert J. Petri, April 4, 1944. They had three children: Gail, Robin, and Coralie. (Her son, Robin, took the Neihardt surname and used Petri as his middle name.)

In 1960, she entered the University of Missouri Law School, graduating with a JD degree in 1963. She was the first woman to practice law in central Missouri. During her years in Columbia, Neihardt was instrumental in obtaining the land and doing the legal work for the creation of the Rock Bridge State Park in Columbia, Missouri.

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