Stephen James Thorpe, 80, died on October 15, 2024, in his son’s bright blue house on the western slope of Mount Moriah in Deadwood. Steve, born on January 13,1944, in Louisville, Kentucky, was the first child of Dr. Virgil and Elizabeth Jackson Thorpe. He was the oldest of five siblings.
He is survived by his son, Richard Thorpe, and three sisters, Lynn Thorpe, Kelly Thorpe, and Stacia Thorpe Thompson. His brother, Dr. Patrick H. Thorpe, died in 1994.
As a singer-songwriter, Steve was beloved among Black Hills musicians and aspiring musicians who refer to him as “The Grandfather of the Black Hills Folk Scene” for his nurturing, inspiration and organization of opportunities for many to perform their own songs. In 2014, the Hill City Arts Council established the annual “Steve Thorpe Music Award” and made Steve the first recipient.
Steve was a US Army veteran, who after studying Chinese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, served in Okinawa during the Vietnam War. His first novel, Walking Wounded, published by Doubleday in 1980 is a tribute to those damaged by the war they were too young to understand and their rocky re-entry into an increasingly anti-Vietnam US culture.
Steve’s childhood was spent in Newcastle, Wyoming from where he wandered into the Black Hills to camp. He also spent time with family at a rustic cabin in Spearfish Canyon. He attended the University of Wyoming in Laramie on a track scholarship in 1962. He graduated with a BA in Philosophy from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1966 after which he enlisted in the Army. He married in 1967 while he was living in Monterey. After his time in Okinawa, he moved to Davis where his son, Richard, was born and where he earned his master’s degree in creative writing at the University of California at Davis in 1979.
In the early 1990’s Steve returned to Wyoming and South Dakota living in Newcastle, Spearfish Canyon, Lead, and finally Deadwood. He worked a variety of jobs while he wrote novels and performed his own music all around the Black Hills and while encouraging aspiring musicians to do the same. He spent many summer days in Hill City, where he performed on a bench near Warrior’s Work and Ben West Galleries singing and handing out hundreds of harmonicas to children so they could join in with the music. One of his favorite jobs was on the “bunny slope” at Terry Peak ski resort. Steve said a dream of his was to make it to 80 picking happy little kids up out of the snow. He was only a month short of his eightieth birthday when he worked his last shift doing just that.
Steve is remembered as kind, humorous, humble, and above all, generous with his musical gifts and encouragement of others as well as his big hugs, especially when you needed them.
There will be a Musical Memorial for Steve at the Moonshine Gulch Saloon in Rochford on November 3rd from 1 to 4 pm. A Memorial Service for family and friends from all over will be held May 17, 2025, in Rapid City.
The Moonshine Gulch Saloon website states it well: “Steve leaves us with an incredible legacy of love…… He will live on in our hearts.”
You may sign his online guestbook at www.blackhillsfuneralhome.com.
