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Wallace, South Dakota

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History

The town was named for the original owner of the town site. Wallace is the birthplace of Hubert Humphrey, the Vice President of the United States from 1965 to 1969.

Hubert Humphrey was born in a room over his father's drugstore in Wallace. He was the son of Ragnild Kristine Sannes (1883–1973), a Norwegian immigrant, and Hubert Horatio Humphrey Sr. (1882–1949). Humphrey spent most of his youth in nearby Doland, a town with a population of approximately 600. His father was a licensed pharmacist and merchant who served as mayor and a town council member; he also served briefly in the South Dakota state legislature and was a South Dakota delegate to the 1944 and 1948 Democratic National Conventions. In the late 1920s, a severe economic downturn hit Doland; both of the town's banks closed and Humphrey's father struggled to keep his store open.

After his son graduated from Doland High School, Hubert Sr. left the area and opened a new drugstore in the larger town of Huron (population 11,000), where he hoped to improve his fortunes.

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