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Noem, Gov. Dennis Daugaard, former Govs. Mike Rounds and Walter Dale Miller and many elected officials from South Dakota.
• The 90-minute funeral drew tears and laughter as friends and relatives told stories about Abdnor's legendary bad driving, good dancing and ability to strike up a conversation anywhere -- coffee shops, streets and sporting events.
• Herb Sundall, a longtime friend of Abdnor's from Kennebec, said Abdnor was never known as a great public speaker, but could win someone's vote after a brief conversation.
• "There were better speakers, better orators, but one-on-one nobody was ever better," Sundall said.
• Abdnor never married and never had children of his own, but he was close to his nephews and nieces. One nephew, also named Jim Abdnor, said the former senator

taught his relatives how to drive and amazed them with his ability to dance all night.
• "He was everybody's favorite uncle," the nephew said.
• Bishop David Zellmer, head of the South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, delivered the sermon. He said Abdnor was rooted in the state, its people, his family and his faith.
• "We are better people, a better state" because of Abdnor, Zellmer said.
• Thune related his oft-told story of how

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