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This week in South Dakota history: July 19-25

Gov. Bill Janklow. Photo: South Dakota Hall of Fame.

Gov. Bill Janklow was back home in Brandon, July 25, 1999. Following an exploratory surgery for pancreatic cancer, the governor would be in and out of the hospital for a month with conditions related to the procedure, according to newspaper reports a quarter century ago.

With pancreatic cancer signs indicated in multiple blood screening tests — no other symptoms were present — the surgery took place June 25 with Mayo Clinic doctors operating at the Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. After removing more than half of his inflamed pancreas, no cancer was found. But the governor’s recovery from that surgery took an unexpected turn, a similar experience to another medical episode the two-time governor went through just a year prior.

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