Matter of Estate of Pierce

GROSSHANS, Circuit Judge.

This is a will contest. The appeal follows the decision of the circuit court admitting the last will and testament of William Pierce to probate. We affirm.

William Pierce (decedent) passed away at a nursing home in White Lake, South Dakota, on December 4, 1978. He was eighty-nine years old. He had never married. Decedent was survived by his sister, Margaret Pierce, a nephew, Evan Jones, and a niece, Margaret Konechne, contestant and appellant herein.

Decedent and his sister, through natural family attrition over a period of fifty years, came into ownership of the bulk…