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Emma Jean Marino Browning
Emma Jean Marino Browning, 61, died Saturday, July 21, 2007, in Miles City.
She was born Dec. 19, 1945, in Rockville Center, New York, one of twin daughters born to James and Florence Fadden Marino. She attended schools in New York state, where she grew up, spending considerable time with the extended family of her favorite aunt, uncle and cousins before graduating in 1964 from Lansing Central School near Ithaca.
After nurses training at Tompkins County Community Hospital she worked in the ICU of Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse where she met and married
Don Hay.
Part of the baby-boomer generation that grew up in the sixties, she formed many of her beliefs, politics and attitudes that carried throughout her life. As this “flower child” of Woodstock matured she kept her attachment to animals, people and the outdoors. She loved her adopted Montana’s space and climate and considered it “home.”
In 1978 she married
Mark Browning in Miles City. They founded Browning Arts and in 1981 moved it to Grand Forks, N.D. For the next dozen years she constructed stained glass windows in that studio that also featured an art gallery and picture framing. Upon returning to Miles City, she again worked in the care-giving and nursing field. She enjoyed her “adopted grandparents” that she assisted in her work at TLC Personal Care Home.
Her survivors include her husband, Mark, and son, Chris, of Miles City; son Paul (Yensy) Browning and grandchildren, Devin and Darian of Seattle, Wash.; her mother, Florence Marino of Ithaca, N.Y.; a twin sister, Barbara Reynolds (Ray), Lansing, N.Y.; a half-brother, Carman “Chick” Marino; a niece and nephew; and numerous cousins.
No services are planned at this time, but a date will be announced later for friends and relatives to gather and remember her life’s experience.
William "Bill" Dyba Sr.
William “Bill” Dyba Sr., 102, of Miles City died peacefully on Sunday, July 22, 2007, at the Holy Rosary Health Center in Miles City.
Mr. Dyba was born in Westfalen, Germany, on Jan. 27, 1905, the seventh of nine sons born to Paul and Agnes Tiel Dyba. The family emigrated to the United States landing at Ellis Island in 1909. He joined his parents a year later. The family lived briefly in Jamestown, Pa., and soon after homesteaded in Rock Springs where he worked and raised sheep.
At the age of 33, he married
Montana Pinnow. Shortly after, they built their own sheep ranch in the Mill Iron area. In the early 1940s, they moved to Miles City where Mr. Dyba worked for the Milwaukee Railroad for 19 years.
He later built Bill’s Trailer Court and was instrumental in the development of the Miles City Plaza, A & W and Dairy Queen on Valley Drive East.
Mr. Dyba enjoyed his horses. He was a kind and nurturing father and was loved by all. He was a member of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
His survivors include two sons: William “Max” Dyba and his wife Kathryn, and Armond “Bob” Dyba and his wife Shelly, all of Miles City; three daughters: Geri Bradshaw of Sandpoint, Idaho, Anita Scanlan of Houston, Texas, and Cindy Grosfield and her husband Bob of Billings; 15 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Montana in 1998; a daughter, Montana Elizabeth in 2006; and eight brothers, Paul, Michael, Walter, John, Fred, Valentine, Anton and Leo.
A Vigil Service will be Friday, July 27, 2007, at 6 p.m. at Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home in Miles City. Mass of Christian Burial will be Saturday, July 28, 2007, at 10 a.m. Rite of Committal will follow in the Calvary cemetery in Miles City.
Should friends desire, memorials may be made to Save The Children, 54 Wilton Rd., West Port, CT 06880.
Alma "Scotty" Burke
Alma “Scotty” Burke died at her home in Seattle on July 22, 2007, at the age of 83 as a result of breast cancer.
She was born to Elizabeth (Nonie) and Jesse Trafton at their homestead near Mildred. When she was a small child the family moved to the Miles City area where they resided at Ft. Keogh for many years before moving to town. Mrs. Burke went to local schools and graduated from Custer County High School in 1942. She worked at Woolworth while attending school.
On March 2, 1944, she married
Jack W. Burke, her high school sweetheart. They lived in Seattle ever since, except for a short time in New York City near the end of World War II.
She loved to design clothes and sew, making many of her lovely outfits.
Her survivors include by her husband, Jack; a daughter, Shannon, and two grandsons, Jesse and Kevin, and a son, Shawn all residing in Seattle; a sister-in-law, Maxine Trafton and a cousin, Maxine Seekins, both of Miles City; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents and two brothers, Leslie Trafton of Miles City in 1994 and Sherman Trafton who was shot down over Formosa during World War II.
Services are pending.
A memorial fund has been established with the American Cancer Society should anyone choose to remember Mrs. Burke in this way and donations may be made by contacting the A.C.S at 1-800-227-2345 or www.cancer.org.
Jean Trzcinski Coffman
Jean Trzcinski Coffman, 80, died Sunday, July 22, 2007, following complications of emphysema at Holy Rosary Healthcare in Miles City.
She was born March 5, 1927, in Miles City, the daughter of Blanche and Charles E. Trzcinski also residents of Miles City. She attended Lincoln Elementary School and Custer County High School, graduating in the class of 1944. She attended the PEO sisterhood Cottey College in Nevada, Mo., graduating there in the class of 1946, and then attended the University of Montana-Missoula where she earned her bachelor of arts degree in 1948.
In June of 2007, she received her PEO certificate of 60 years of membership in Chapter K, P.E.O. Montana.
While attending Cottey College, she met her future husband, Dick (Richard C.) Coffman. At the time he was awaiting military call up to the Army Counterintelligence Corps’ (CIC) Japanese Language School. Following his return from CIC military service in Japan, they were married
three days after Christmas in 1948, in the Miles City First Presbyterian Church. They made their home in Columbia, Mo., where Mr. Coffman was attending the University of Missouri. There Mrs. Coffman worked as secretary to the Dean of Engineering and was elected by the engineering students there as the Queen of Erin Go Braugh.
Their first home at the university was a 27-foot travel trailer they had purchased, as housing was otherwise unavailable. Missouri was very prone to ice storms, which frequently knocked out electrical power, so Mrs. Coffman learned to make candles, heat and cook with kerosene.
Early in 1951 Mr. Coffman withdrew from graduate school and accepted a commission in the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Special Agent. His first assignment was to Boston, Mass. While in Boston, Mrs. Coffman worked in and appeared in the movie, “Walk East on Beacon Street” directed by Otto Preminger. The movie was of a closed, real FBI case and utilized several agents and agent’s wives. During the making of the movie Mrs. Coffman often met the director and several of the FBI officials from Washington FBI Headquarters who were consultants to the making of the movie.
The following year Mr. Coffman was transferred to Washington, D.C. and they rented a house in nearby Riverdale, Md. In mid-summer Mrs. Coffman returned to Miles City for the birth of their son, Bruce. Soon after returning to Maryland with her new son, she and Mr. Coffman bought a home in Fairfax County, Va. Here four years later their daughter, Lizbeth Lee, was born and Mrs. Coffman did the den mother and cookies routine.
She was active in the local PEO chapter, eventually being elected President of Chapter. In her spare time she worked as a substitute teacher and as a tour guide and hostess for the National Heritage Trust Foundation at several of the historic colonial homes and estates in the area. Also, she attended the Sports Car Club of America competition driving school and raced and won first in class with Mr. Coffman’s MG English Sports Car at the local Marlborough Sports Car Track in Marlborough, Md. She was elected the perennial trophy chairman of the MG Car Club and the Jaguar Owners Club of North America. She and Mr. Coffman regularly took their small children in the equally small back seats of their MG or Jaguar on Sunday afternoon street-legal road rallies.
Mrs. Coffman began flying lessons and earned her FAA pilot’s license in 1966. Three years later Mr. Coffman gave her a Piper Colt aircraft. About this time she was accepted into the Amelia Earhart founded International Organization of Women Pilots, the 99s. In this organization she met and frequently flew with some of the early pioneer women pilots who had been contemporaries of Amelia Earhart. She assisted in putting on some of their local, national and international events in the Washington, D.C. area.
She also acquired her real estate agent’s license and began selling property in the Northern Virginia Area.
In 1970, Mr. Coffman was assigned to produce and film a classified Foreign Counter Intelligence training movie for the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va. His script called for aerial scenes of Washington, D.C., and the (then) National Airport located just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Mrs. Coffman got permission from the FAA to remove the passenger side door of her aircraft so Mr. Coffman could maneuver the professional movie film camera for the desired aerial scenes. One scene involved her putting the aircraft into a side-slip as she descended toward the long jet runway at National Airport. The training movie was used for several years at the academy. In 1974 she flew her airplane from Virginia to Miles City, accompanied by her son, for her 30th Custer County High School Class Reunion. She was met at Frank Wiley Field by Ava and Nancy Mitchell and their photo was carried in the Star. Mrs. Coffman’s daughter once described her mother as a witch to a classmate and Mrs. Coffman promptly named her aircraft The Broomstick, and operated as Broomstick airlines.
In the mid 1970s, Mr. Coffman received a transfer to Salt Lake City, Utah, so while he and Bruce reported to the Salt Lake Office, Mrs. Coffman remained temporarily in Virginia and arranged and produced their daughter’s wedding, closed down her real estate business, sold their house, gathered up their two Maltese puppies and brought her aircraft to Salt Lake City. Shortly thereafter she designed and supervised the building and furnishing their dream home in Sandy, Utah.
While in Utah Mr. and Mrs. Coffman were commissioned Colonels in the Confederate Air Force (now The Commemorative Air Force), an organization that restores and flies World War II line aircraft in air shows put on by the CAF throughout the United States. At the Salt Lake City air shows Mrs. Coffman was assigned as fuel officer for the authorizing and overseeing the fueling of aircraft flown in the show. As her reward for this volunteer work she got to fly several WW II fighters and major training planes used during the war. A high point for her was getting dual instruction in and the flying of a Boeing Flying Fortress B-17 four engine bomber.
When Mr. Coffman reached the retirement age of Special Agents, they began making plans to retire and move to Miles City. In 1996, they built a home here. During the completion of the furnishing of this home, Mrs. Coffman suffered a stroke that curtailed most of her desired activities.
Her survivors include her husband, Dick of Miles City; son, Bruce Coffman of Santa Barbara, Calif.; daughter, Lee Gray of Dale City, Va., ; her sister, Ruth Schott of Miles City; and two granddaughters, Kimberly Coffman of Santa Barbara and Jessica Gray of Dale City.
Funeral services will be Friday, July 27, 2007, at 10 a.m. at Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home in Miles City. Interment will follow in the Custer County cemetery in Miles City.
Should friends desire, memorials may be made to the charity of one’s choice.
James David Arneson
James David Arneson, 85, of Duncan, Okla., formerly of Miles City and Sidney, died Tuesday, July 24, 2007. Services are pending.
Nelda Irene Rebhahn Hout Kennedy
In the early hours of July 22 a tiny woman with a big heart slipped away to begin her next great adventure.
Nelda Irene Rebhahn Hout Kennedy was born August 1, 1927 in Barber, MT to George Rebhahn and Frieda Haase Rebhahn. They soon moved to Kinsey where she grew up working in the fields along side her dad and picking up agates as she played along the river.
She faced a tough life, but to the end she did it bravely with her chin up and with a smile.
Mom spent her last years in Charlo, MT, and was preceded in death by her parents, by her first husband Robert Hout, Sr., and then by W.M. (Bill) Kennedy. She also mourned the loss of her son, Ronald Hout, and a good friend of many years, Edward Jensen.
She is survived first by her sisters Glenda (Bud) Muller, Sharon (Orville) Hope, and her little brother Arnold (Liana) Rebhahn. Mom is also survived by her sons Robert (Bonnie) Hout, Charles (Donna) Hout and Melvin (Charlotte, Polly) Hout, as well as her daughters Carolea (O.B.) Hout Matt and Patricia (John) Kennedy Memoli. There are numerous grandchildren, great-grands, and her first great-great-grandson, who will miss their “granma.”
A memorial service is being planned and will be announced. In lieu of flowers please feel free to donate to Watson’s Children’s Shelter in Missoula as Mom cared so much that children should know they are safe and loved.
Cleo Irving Beals
Cleo Irving Beals, 89, died Friday, Aug. 17, 2007.
Mrs. Beals was born Sept. 1, 1917, in Ismay to Vanity and Samuel near the family homestead in the Mildred area. Born prematurely after her mother was kicked by a horse, she was named “Baby Girl Irving” on her birth certificate when she was not expected to survive, an oddity that was not discovered and corrected until Mrs. Beals was in her 70s.
She grew up in Hamilton where her architect-builder father was involved in construction of the local hospital. After her father’s untimely death in 1933, the family moved to Ingomar, where her mother operated the school boarding house. While staying with relatives in Forsyth, she met the love of her life, Dude (W.E.) Beals. They graduated from Ingomar High School in 1936.
She married
her high school sweetheart, Dude, on Dec. 27, 1937, and celebrated 56 years together living next door to his parents, whom she loved dearly. She was a member of Concordia Lutheran Church in Forsyth for more than 60 years. A strong Spirit-filled Christian, Mrs. Beals understood the importance of constant communication in her walk with our Lord Jesus.
A direct descendant of Father of the American Revolution Samuel Adams, Mrs. Beals was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution as well as the Colonial Dames.
We remember a gracious lady who listened and responded with Godly wisdom and a smile that touched many lives, a lady who quickly forgave and loved others unconditionally. She lived by Philippians 4:4-9 and hated gossip, always looking for the good in others. She greeted every new day with a smile and positive expectation, and she found comfort in the 23rd Psalm.
Her survivors include three children: Bob (Sylvia) Beals Sr. of Forsyth, Bonny (Carl) Rieckmann of Billings and Byron “Bus” (Thelma) Beals of Miles City; seven grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
Survivors also include a sister, Lura (Rudy) Anselmi; a sister-in-law, Jeri Irving; a brother-in-law, Lt. Col. Bob Hubbes; and a step-brother, Charles Shore.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Dude; a brother, Sib Irving; and a sister, Vanity Hubbes.
A Celebration of Life service will be at Stevenson Funeral Home in Forsyth on Saturday, Aug. 25, 2007, at 2 p.m.
Coy Clem Hahm
Coy Clem Hahm, 98, of White Sulphur Springs died at the Mountain View Medical Center in White Sulphur Springs on Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007.
Mrs. Hahm was born on Oct. 7, 1908, in Henrietta, Texas, the daughter of Wesley Chandler and Mattie Childers. When she was six years of age, the family traveled to Miles City by train and onto the Childers Homestead by covered wagon on Vail Creek, northwest of Jordan. She attended schools in Garfield County, graduating in May of 1927.
In the 1930s, she met and married
a young railroader named Ed Hahm. Mrs. Hahm worked in various restaurants in Miles City and surrounding areas until the 1950s when she and her husband owned and operated the Eat Shoppe in Roundup.
After selling that, they retired to their home in Checkerboard where they spent countless hours fishing the brookie trout streams in the area and playing cards.
After Mr. Hahm died in the mid 1970s, Mrs. Hahm continued to live in Checkerboard, doing the things she loved and traveling with her sisters Bunnie and Gussie. In the 1990s, she decided she wanted to move to town and moved into Helena, which lasted about six months. She then moved back to White Sulphur Springs where she made her home.
Mrs. Hahm was a 60-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star.
In October of 2005, due to failing health, she moved into the nursing home where she resided until the time of her death.
Mrs. Hahm is survived by many nephews and nieces; and her extended family in White Sulphur Springs, Keith VanBuren, Marian Jones, Betty Clay, and many others, including all the wonderful staff at the Mountain View Medical Center.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Wesley and Mattie Childers; her husband, Ed Hahm; her brothers, Ellis, Lee, Glenn and Virgil; and her sisters, Lynn Childers, Gussie Lankeit, Vesper McGuire and Vernie Mart.
Funeral services will be Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007, at 1 p.m. at the Alliance Church in White Sulphur Springs. Interment will follow in the Harlowton cemetery in Harlowton.
If desired, all memorials are requested to go to the Mountain View Medical Center Endowment Fund or to the charity of one’s choice.
Milton "Larry" Lawrence Sayre
Milton “Larry” Lawrence Sayre, 79, of Miles City died at the Holy Rosary Healthcare in Miles City on Friday, Aug. 17, 2007.
Mr. Sayre was born on March 30, 1928, in Leatart Falls, Ohio, to Lee and Ruth Reiber Sayre, one of six children, five boys and one girl. He attended schools in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
At the age of 17 years he left school and entered the United States Army-Air Force in February 1945, being assigned first to Camp Attaberry to gunnery school, then to radio school in Indiana. With the flight crew he flew to Canada, Alaska, Aleutian Islands, Chitosey, Japan, Tokyo, Hawaii, Hamburg, Wiesbaughten, Germany, Sidney Australia, and Calcutta, India. He helped train crews for the Berlin airlift.
He was honorably discharged in East Base (now Malstrom) in Great Falls in 1949, following which he joined the Great Falls Fire Department. Mr. Sayre was one of two personnel selected to start the Fire Prevention Bureau.
On Oct. 12, 1953, he was joined in marriage to I. Beryl Tichenor from Opheim. He had two sons and a daughter. He took the test and was assigned Assistant Fire Chief at the former Glasgow Air Force Base in 1957, later being promoted to Deputy Chief and transferred to Minot AFB, N.D.
Wishing to return to Montana, he resigned and returned to Glasgow to open his Sayre Fire Equipment business full time and traveled the highline for several years. He then served as Deputy Sheriff for Valley County and Juvenile Officer for several years.
Following his divorce he moved to Miles City in 1973 and again pursued his fire equipment business full time serving all of eastern Montana, and enjoyed working part time as a Special Deputy for the Custer County Sheriff’s office under Sheriff Bill Damm and then Tony Harbaugh.
On Aug. 29, 1975, he was united in marriage to Rita Stevenson Larsen and gained a step-son to help raise and love more like his own. In 2000, Mr. Sayre retired due to ill health.
At a special ceremony in Glasgow in 2005 he was presented with his Veteran’s Honorary High School Diploma by Mayor Willie Zeller.
Mr. Sayre was involved in several community organizations throughout the years and proudly received his 50 year pin from the Miles City B.P.O. Elks Lodge 537 in March of 2007. He was a 35-year member of the Masonic Lodge AF & AM and AlBedoo Shrine, Bugatti Patrol. He currently was serving as Elks National Veterans Service Representative for Southeastern Montana.
His survivors include his wife of 32 years, Rita Sayre of Miles City; sons, David (Sharon) Sayre of Great Falls and Jeffery (Jaqueline) Sayre of Lewiston, Idaho; daughter, Leslie (Rob) Couture of Soldotna, AK; and son, Tom (Sundi) Larsen Sayre of Laurel; a brother, Bernard Sayre of Weirton, WV; his step-mother, Icy May Sayre of Wellston, Ohio; nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents, three brothers and one sister.
The family will receive friends from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 20, 2007, at Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home in Miles City followed by a Masonic Service at 6:30 p.m. at Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home. Funeral services will be Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007, at 2 p.m. at Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home in Miles City. Interment will follow in the Eastern Montana Veterans cemetery with full military honors provided by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 1579.
Should friends desire, memorials may be sent to the AlBedoo Shrine Temple, Shrine Hospital Transportation Fund or the charity of one’s choice.
