When I opened an office of my newspaper in Rapid City back in the 1980s one of my frequent visitors was Lloyd Goings. It appeared that he just loved the newspaper business and so he would stop by our new office nearly every day to visit and bring us news.

One day I told him that since he hung around the office so much I might as well give him a job. He accepted and I put him out on the streets of Rapid City selling advertising. And boy could he sell. He even amazed me because he was bringing in accounts none of my sales people had ever been able to reach. It turned out the Lloyd was also a used car salesman on the side. He always had an old car that he was promoting and quite often ended up selling the car to one of my employees.

But Lloyd had a lot of irons in the fire and one day he said he was giving up his sales job because he had a small business idea he wanted to pursue. We parted company as good friends, and even after his resignation, Lloyd still came to the office a couple of days a week just to visit. He always had stories from the Rez that he had heard about and he would pass them on to our reporters to pursue.

A few weeks ago we put up a sign on our office door that all visitors had to wear a mask. We even put a box of masks at the front door. Well, Lloyd didn’t like the idea at all, but he complied with it. He forced himself to wear a mask at our office, but refused to wear one outside of the office. He was against getting vaccinated also.

Last week Lloyd paid the price for neglecting to take care of himself. He came down with COVID-19, fought it for a couple of days at home, but when they finally got him to a hospital it was too late.

We lost our good friend Lloyd Goings last Tuesday.

His good friend Kirk Dickerson, our Sales Manager, said of him, “Lloyd Goings was a multi-talented man. He was a master financial consultant along with being an airplane pilot. He helped consult me with my military health issues that I was facing with valuable advice. He was also an asset to the Native Sun News consulting with us on tribal issues as well. His exterior may have been a little rough but his heart was one of pure gold. He had a keen oversight on Native American issues over the years. We would always meet for lunch discussing politics, race and religion. His expertise on internal tribal matters, treaties and the Indian Relocation Act which sets the governing rules of tribes was very valuable. He was a man who wanted to see justice and equality to given to those who did not receive it. It is hard to find good friends these days and he will be sorely missed.”

All week I expected his big, black truck to pull up at the front door and for Lloyd to walk into the office and start visiting and aggravating all of the employees. But last week is the last time we will ever see that truck parked in front of the office and taking up two parking spaces like it always did. We always hollered at him, “Why don’t you learn how to park.”

We all miss him and we wish he would have worn a mask like we all do and got vaccinated, but he didn’t and so we lost one of the best friends to ever visit our office. Things will never be the same around here without our friend Lloyd. His sense of humor and his story telling will not be around to break up the oftentimes bleakness of our work day and I don’t think Lloyd ever knew how he brightened our day.

Needless to say we were all shocked to hear of his sudden death. Dickerson said, “I just had lunch with him last week and his friend Bryan Brewer just had lunch with him and it is really hard to believe he is gone.”

Rest in peace Lloyd Goings and know that you left a big hole in the hearts of everyone at Native Sun News Today. You won’t be there for the next birthday party we have at the office as you have always been and so we bid our farewells to you and we pray that Wakan Tanka is kind to you.

---

Contact Tim Giago at najournalist1@gmail.com

---

Note: Content © Tim Giago