Michele Douglas Dippert, also known as “Miki” Douglas Dippert, was born in Buffalo, New York on March 30, 1945 to Katherine “Kay” Sweeney. She died on Saturday January 6, 2024, from complications of lung disease. She was 78 years old.

Michele was adopted as a small child by Kay’s husband, William “Bill” Douglas whom Kay met while attending college in Missouri. They moved to Colorado to finish college, Bill as a business major and Kay as a nursing major. They settled in Rapid City, South Dakota after college where Michele grew up, attended public school. Kay & Bill had another daughter, Kristin, who was the apple of her big sister’s eye. Michele doted on Kristin and watched her closely since there was 10 years difference in their age.

While growing up in Rapid City, Michele attended North Junior High and Central High School, where she was a proud “Cobbler”. During this time, she met Darryl Dippert and they married in 1963. They had 2 children, Shawn Michele and Shane Michael. They had moved to Wyoming in 1968 where they resided in Riverton and Cheyenne after several moves and decided to move back to Riverton, where they resided until divorcing in 1980. Shawn remained with Michele in Riverton until she graduated from Riverton High School and Shane moved with Darryl to Rapid City.

Michele had been a stay-at-home mom for most of the years of her marriage to Darryl and looked forward to working and being more independent. Following her divorce, she worked her way up into various management positions ranging from Main Markets, locally owned & operated in Riverton from 1980 to 1988, to Scottsdale, Arizona where she worked for Coldwell Banker several years before moving back to Wyoming. She then worked as an optician and managed another eye clinic in Evanston for about 10 years. At this time, another change when she moved to Alaska to be closer to her son and his wife and their 2 daughters, Erin and Allyson. She worked there for Wells Fargo, then worked for her daughter- in-law in her privately owned secondhand kids & women’s clothing store. After 25 years in Alaska, she returned to her home state of South Dakota and this is where she lived out her retirement living close to her also retired son and his wife until her death.

Michele was well known for her spunky personality, obsessive cleanliness, fun sense of humor and classic rude finger gestures. She will be missed by all her knew her.

Michele is survived by her daughter, Shawn McMillan of Casper, Wyoming, grandson Zachery (Dallas, Texas), granddaughter, Tanis (Casper, Wyoming), her son, Shane Dippert and his wife Barb (Rapid City, South Dakota) along with their daughters Erin Dippert also of Rapid City and Allyson Dippert (Phoenix, Arizona). She is also survived by extended family, Noah, Celia, Eric, Cole, and Christian. Michele is also survived by her lifelong friend Vicki Martin of Rock Springs, Wyoming.

NO public services are planned as requested by Michele. The family will scatter her ashes at a private family gathering early this summer.