Lorna Buntrock Herseth was born April 5, 1909, to German pioneer parents Albert and Ida Yeske Buntrock in Columbia, South Dakota, the youngest of their eleven children.

She grew up on a farm north-west of Columbia, SD, and attended high school in Columbia, where she met and fell in love with fellow classmate, Ralph Herseth, youngest in a Norwegian family of eight children, who lived on a farm eight miles from her farm home.

Lorna and Ralph courted for eleven years during the Great Depression and finally married December 23, 1937, in Columbia, while Lorna was the Brown County Superintendent of Schools and Ralph supervised the Sand Lake CCC camp. They honeymooned by driving a Model A to California and back, staying their first night in the St. Charles Hotel in Pierre.

Before marriage Lorna attended Northern State Teachers College in Aberdeen, earning a two-year teaching certificate after which she taught in the rural schools of Brown County before becoming Brown County Superintendent of Schools.

She and Ralph farmed the ranch on the east side of Sand Lake near Houghton for almost 30 years, with interruptions for public service: Ralph was a State senator for many years and in 1958-60 was South Dakota's 21st Governor (3rd Democratic Governor) and Lorna, the First Lady.

Ralph died January 24, 1969. Lorna lived briefly in Aberdeen and then accepted the Democratic Party's request to run for South Dakota Secretary of State. She won and served two terms, from 1974 to 1980.

After her retirement from politics, Lorna continued to live in Pierre. She traveled to the Holy Land on a study trip sponsored by Northern State University; she made trips to Holden Village, a Christian retreat center in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state; she continued to be a student of government and history; she played bridge; she raised glorious irises; she wrote her autobiography; and she loved and supported her family.

Lorna & Ralph raised three children, and had seven grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, several step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren.