Sybil Budahl Nies, age 76, of Hackensack, Minn., died Wednesday, April 16, 2005, in St. Cloud.

Funeral services were 2 p.m. Saturday, April 16, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Hackensack, with the Rev. Thea Monson officiating. Interment was in Hillcrest Cemetery, Hackensack.

Sybil was born on March 29, 1928, in Albert Lea, the daughter of Edwin Peter and Louis (Winjum) Budahl. She was raised and educated in the area of her birth. She graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1946. After high school, she worked as a feature writer, photographer, and straight news reporter for the Albert Lea Evening Tribune. She then became a retail-advertising salesman and freelance feature writer for The Denver Post, Denver, Colo.

She married LaVerne L. Nies on April 30, 1954, in Minneapolis. Shortly after their marriage, they began their long time association with the Hackensack area. They owned and operated Nies Cabins and Campground, located on Big Birch Lake north of

Hackensack from 1954 to 2004. Verne was a college professor and they always had the summers off from teaching to run the resort. Sybil ran the resort alone for 11 years after Verne’s death in 1993.

In 1963, while living in Fargo, N.D., Sybil became a publicist for North Dakota State University and a freelance feature writer and photographer for the Dakota Farmer. In 1967, they returned to Minnesota permanently where Sybil continued her education by attending Brainerd Community College from 1968 to 1970, and then went on to graduate from the University of Minnesota in 1972 with a BA in Innovative Education in Sociology. In September of 1975, she became a part time instructor of sociology at Brainerd Community College. They retired in 1976 and continued to operate the resort.

Sybil had many memberships, had chaired different organizations and organized many events. She was a member of the Hackensack Chamber of Commerce, regional organization to Minnesota Department of Tourism for ten years, served as project director on community education on social, economic and environmental impacts of drought and fire; president of Cass County Izaac Walton League, received an award from the Crow Wing County Environmental Council, member of the committee that founded Deep-Portage, on the Deep-Portage Board of Directors, member of the Birch Lake

Association and served on the Cass County Extension Board. Along with participating in all the organizations, she also loved to travel and especially enjoyed her grandchildren.

Survivors include her children: Mike (Cheryl) Nies of St. Cloud, Nancy Nies of Minneapolis, and Edwin (Geradette) Nies of Bismarck, N.D.; eight grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a sister, Phyllis Fredrickson of Albert Lea.

She was preceded in death by her husband; parents; brother, Edwin; and an infant daughter.