Search Archived Marriage Records
Frank Browning Buck
Frank Browning Buck, 93, of Miles City died Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, at the Friendship Villa Care Center in Miles City.
Mr. Browning was born in Ekalaka on Oct. 12, 1913, the son of Frank and Ruth Browning Buck. He grew up and attended grade school at Camp Crook, S.D. He graduated from Carter County High School in Ekalaka.
Following his schooling, he purchased a caterpillar and scraper, doing dirt work in Carter County.
He entered the United States Army, serving during World War II and was stationed in the South Pacific.
Upon his honorable discharge from the service, he returned to Ekalaka where he married
Gladys Tavlin in 1947. Mr. Buck represented Ekalaka as its state representative for one term.
In 1960, the family moved to Denver, Colo., and then to Durango, Colo., where they lived until moving to Payson, Ariz. He later moved to Billings where he lived until moving to Miles City in 1998 where he made his home since.
Mr. Buck loved to play the piano.
His survivors include three grandchildren: Allan (Terri) Buck of Ekalaka, Melanie (Dave) Hout of Worland, Wyo., and Randy Buck of Belle Fourche, S.D.; and six great grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Gladys; a son, Gary Buck; and two sisters, Sunshine Zolinoski and Margaret Hall.
Funeral services will be Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007, at 11 a.m. at the Ekalaka Bible Church in Ekalaka. Interment will be at a later date in the Camp Crook cemetery in Camp Crook, S.D.
Should friends desire, memorials may be made to the Ekalaka Swimming Pool Fund or to the charity of one’s choice.
Sara Butterbaugh
Sara Butterbaugh, 95, died Saturday, Aug. 11, 2007. A lifelong Montanan, she resided at Holy Rosary Extended Care Facility since 1999.
She was born in Harlowtown on July 10, 1912, to Philip G. Kearney and Margaret Dougherty Kearney. Philip Kearney was employed by the Milwaukee Road. For a time they homesteaded in Kinsey, but most of her early years were spent in Miles City. She graduated from Sacred Heart Grade School and the Ursuline Convent High School in Great Falls.
In 1937, she and Jim Butterbaugh of Miles City were married
. He worked for the Milwaukee Road until retirement in 1972. Mrs. Butterbaugh, remembered for her indomitable energy, worked until 1985. She began at the Miles City Creamery during the depression, moved to The Milwaukee Road, JC Penney, Renwick Torgeson Drug, the Olive Hotel, and Chandler’s Gift Shop in West Yellowstone.
Mrs. Butterbaugh loved the prairies of Custer County, pets, peonies, roses and chokecherries; she loved the mountains, wildlife, huckleberries, boating and fishing. In 1949, Mr. and Mrs. Butterbaugh leased a home site at Rumbaugh Ridge on Hebgen Lake. They began in a tent, tethered to a spring, and commenced to build “Their Cabin‚” log-by-log, creating a large, airy home. By 1954 they were welcoming friends and family to the cabin. Only miles from the epicenter, Mr. and Mrs. Butterbaugh and the cabin survived the massive earthquake of 1959. They resided there every summer and for longer periods during retirement.
Mrs. Butterbaugh was passionate about Montana, The Milwaukee Railroad, the Democratic Party, and the Ursuline Nuns. She was a member of Sacred Heart Parish, the Milwaukee Women’s Club, and the Convent Keepers. Her close nieces and nephews remember Aunt Sara as loving, generous, thoughtful-and a great cook.
Her husband, Jim, and brothers, Michael and Philip, preceded her in death.
She is survived by her nieces, Lynn Kearney of Arlington, Va., Jane Kearney McCauley of Orange, Calif., Tami Kearney of Denver, Colo., Denise Kearney Patterson of Jackson, Wyo., and Martha Braunbeck of Miles City; her nephews, Philip Kearney of NYC, Tom Kearney of Sweetwater, Minn., David Hammond of Laramie, Wyo., and Al Towlerton of Helena.
A Rosary and Memorial Service will be held 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, at Bullis Graves Memorial Chapel. A Funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Sacred Heart Church followed by graveside services and a memorial luncheon.
Should friends desire, memorial contributions may be made to Sacred Heart Church.
Bullis Graves Memorial Chapel has been entrusted with the arrangements.
Dr. Frederick Michels
Dr. Frederick E. Michels, 93, of Miles City died Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2007, at the Friendship Villa Care Center.
Dr. Michels was born on Jan. 24, 1914, in Archer, the son of James and Anna Fugle Michels. In 1917, his father moved the family to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation south of Plentywood. His schooling started in 1920 when the family was moved to Medicine Lake to attend school there. Further schooling for the family continued in the rural schools of Sheridan County. Mr. Michels entered high school in Plentywood in 1928 and graduated in 1932.
He spent the summer of 1932 and the winter and summer of 1933 working on the home ranch. In the fall of 1933 he enrolled in a pre-med course in the Northern Montana College in Havre. While going to college he worked for the F. A. Buttrey Department store and in the fall of 1934 he was offered employment in the new department store opening in Fort Peck.
In 1936 he obtained work on the Fort Peck Dam as a store keeper. Dr. Michels worked on the dam until the spring of 1938 when he transferred to the Los Angeles Flood Control program of the Corps of Engineers. In 1939 he transferred to the Naval Air Station in San Diego. In January of 1943 he transferred to the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro, Calif. While there, Dr. Michels resigned from Federal Civil Service after 11 years.
He entered the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. Dr. Michels set up a practice in Columbia City, Ind., and spent 33 years in Indiana.
Dr. Michels and his wife, Bernice, had two sons, Dennis and John, and two grandchildren.
John Michels was killed in an automobile accident in 1965. Dr. and Mrs. Michels retired to Texas in 1980. Mrs. Michels died from a heart attack in December 1993. Dennis died in 2006 as a result of a plane accident.
Dr. Michels moved to Miles City in April 1994 and lived with his brother, Jim Michels. He remained in Miles City until the time of his death.
He loved to travel and was proud to say they saw every state in the union and loved to go to dances and listen to the music. He also loved to watch television.
HIs survivors include two grandchildren, Christina of Atlanta, Ga., and Doran of Portland, Ore.; two brothers, Jim Michels and Clair Michels, both of Miles City; a sister, Elsie Medders of Plentywood; his friend and companion, Bernice Criswell of Miles City; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be Monday, Sept. 24, 2007, at 2 p.m. at Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home in Miles City. Interment will follow in the Custer County cemetery in Miles City.
Nina Fern Joslyn
Nina Joslyn, 85, passed away Wednesday, September 19, 2007.
She was born in Broadus Montana, on February 26, 1922, the second of three daughters born to Chas. E. and Reeva E. (Beach) Joslyn. She received her education in Powder River County and married
Frank J. Schmalz in Milwaukee WI on September 13, 1941. They had one daughter, ArLynn (Walter) Archer.
Nina enjoyed careers as secretary in a number of positions in Broadus. Some were for the Ford Motor Co., the Broadus Town Clerk and later she was employed as the Powder River High School Secretary.
In 1971 she and Frank moved from Broadus to Sidney, MT, later to Miles City, MT, until Frank retired. Then they traveled extensively around the western US in their mobile home with their pet poodle, Peaches. For their 50th wedding anniversary they traveled to Scotland to visit their oldest grandson, Mark.
When Frank and Nina’s health began to fail she moved to Billings and lived at the Grand Park, Sage Tower, St. John’s and lastly to Lincoln Lane Assisted Living.
Nina enjoyed her flower and vegetable gardens, traveling and crocheting. She was an excellent cook and baker, but mostly she enjoyed her four grandchildren and families, Mark T. (Lourdes) Borla, Melanie D. (Mark) Butorac, Collin J (Elizabeth) Borla, and Quinn J (Amy) Borla.
She is survived by her daughter, ArLynn and husband Walter Archer, her four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, Stephanie and Joseph Borla, Jase Butorac, Brooke and Monet Borla, and Julia and Natalie Borla; numerous nieces and nephews, and one sister and brother-in-law, Grant and Norma Baker.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her former spouse, Frank, and her sister, Ona Tipton.
A Memorial Mass will be held in Billings at 12 Noon on Tuesday, September 25 at St. Patrick’s Co-Cathedral, 215 N. 31st Street. Cremation has taken place.
Smith Downtown Chapel of Billings is assisting with arrangements.
Walter Richard "Walt" (Morgan) Berry
Walter Richard “Walt” (Morgan) Berry, 63, of St. Louis, Mo., died Friday, Sept. 14, 2007, at St. Mary’s Health Center in St. Louis after a short illness. No services are planned.
Mr. Berry was born Nov. 15, 1943, at the Holy Rosary Hospital in Miles City to Howard R. and Catherine B. (Weinschrott) Morgan. His parents later moved to Minnesota where, at an early age, he lost his father in a car accident. His mother returned to Miles City and he along with his siblings, Steve and Sandy, were legally adopted by his step-father, the late Robert W. Berry of Brockway, whom his mother had married
.
Mr. Berry attended local schools, including Sacred Heart, where he served as an altar boy, and the Berry School, a one-room country school near Watkins, graduating from Custer County High School in 1963.
He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps shortly afterwards and served honorably during the Vietnam War. He was one of only three members of his unit, Delta [artillery] Battery; Second Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, who were not wounded when they suffered heavy casualties including 27 deaths and 83 wounded, at Gio Linh, Republic of South Vietnam; an outpost on the DMZ, during a 25-day period of duty in August of 1967. He also participated in Operation Deckhouse V in the Mekong Delta; his unit operating from the USS Iwo Jima.
After finishing his military obligation, Mr. Berry returned to Miles City. In March 1973, shortly after the death of his mother, Mr. Berry left and never returned to Montana. He worked in demolitions in the St. Louis, Mo., area since that time. He was a long-term employee of Duneman Demolition, Inc. of St. Louis up to his recent hospitalization.
Mr. Berry never talked about himself. He was a quiet, unassuming person who always put others before himself. He was always clean, hardworking, compulsively thorough, and gifted with a remarkable memory. He never lost his affection for country life. His fondest memories were of branding days in the Brockway community, riding horseback and camping out on Little Sheep Mountain. He loved to read, especially history of the southeastern Montana area and the “Old West.” He was always concerned for and curious about the circumstances and well-being of his family, friends and co-workers. He was Roman Catholic.
His survivors include Barbara Collins of St Louis, his companion for the past 25 years; his brother and sister-in-law, Steve (Berry) Morgan and Elizabeth Morgan of Bryan, Texas; his sister and brother- in-law, Sandy and Dennis Kirchheck of Miles City; his sister, Amanda Berry of Los Angeles, Calif.; his sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and Dwayne Brock of Plant City, Fla.; his nephews, Justin Kirchheck and Jared Brock; as well as aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and co-workers.
He was preceded in death by his parents and step-father; and his paternal and maternal grandparents.
As was his wish, Mr. Berry’s eyes were recovered by Mid-America Transplant Services of St. Louis. Family burial will take place at the Custer County cemetery in Miles City.
Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home of Miles City is in charge of the arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made to the American Cancer Society or Mid-America Transplant Services of St. Louis, Mo.
Elsie Neumiller
Elsie Neumiller, 85 of Fallon, died from cancer on Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007, at the Rosebud Health Care Center Nursing Home in Forsyth.
Born Jan. 16, 1922, in Richey, she was the daughter of Henry and Nettie Baese.
She and Art Neumiller were married
in 1941. During the 2nd World War, while Mr. Neumiller was stationed in California, she moved to Sacramento, Calif., and worked in a friend’s hotel so that she could be closer to her husband.
After the war, Mr. and Mrs. Neumiller returned to the family farm near Marsh. In 1964 they moved to the Fallon Flat where they lived until 1974. They then moved into Fallon.
Mrs. Neumiller worked for Waldo’s Gardens for 18 years. She loved to do gardening and she also loved to quilt. She made many quilts for her family and many for the church and would say she never wanted anybody to be cold.
Her survivors include her three sons, Gustav (Betty) Neumiller of Sarpy Creek, Leonard (Dottie) Neumiller of Laughlin, Nev., and Larry (Jane) Neumiller of Colstrip; her one daughter, Esther (James) Blake of Broadview; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Also surviving are her sisters Vera, Evelyn, Stella and Rosie; and her brothers, Algy, Levi, Leroy, Duane and Jason.
Funeral Service will be Friday, Oct. 5, 2007, at 2 p.m. in the Chapel of Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home in Terry. Burial will follow in the Prairie County cemetery in Terry.
Should friends desire memorials may be made to the charity of one’s choice.
Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home of Forsyth has been entrusted with these arrangements.
Lois Fae Steen
Funeral services for Lois Fae Steen, 75, of Baker, former Miles City resident, were held Saturday afternoon, Sept. 29, 2007, in the American Lutheran Church in Baker with Pastor Bruce Kolasch officiating. Interment was Monday afternoon, Oct. 1, 2007, in the Rose Hill cemetery at Spearfish, S.D.
Mrs. Steen died Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007, at Fallon Medical Complex Nursing Home in Baker.
She was born on Sept. 25, 1932, a daughter of Otto and Ruth Hamilton Ovitz in Bowman, N.D. As a young girl, she lived in various places in Bowman County, Harding County and Wisconsin. She graduated from Bowman High School in 1950.
After graduation, she attended Presentation School of Nursing in Aberdeen, S.D., later transferring to Miles City where she earned a degree as a Registered Nurse in 1954. She was a person of adventure and determination.
On Dec. 3, 1954, she did her first solo flight in an airplane at Wokal Flying Service in Bowman.
While she was attending college in Miles City, she met a young man by the name of Gordon Steen. On June 5, 1955, they were married
in Bowman. To this union Bryant, Kelly, Joy Lynn and Terry were born.
Mr. and Mrs. Steen lived on the Steen farm south of Ollie near Tatley Hill, where she helped raise her four children while tending to farming and ranching duties.
Mrs. Steen was actively involved with the Country Pals 4-H club while her children were in 4-H; was a member of the Ollie Homemakers Club and was a faithful and devoted member of the American Lutheran Church in Baker. She enjoyed her service to her Lord and was member of the Esther Circle. Church was an important part of her life. In her spare time, she enjoyed gardening and canning, decorating for the various holidays, photography, music and oil painting.
A few years ago, Mrs. Steen’s mother, Ruth Ovitz, joined her as a resident at Fallon Medical Complex Nursing Home, where they shared a double room together keeping track of each other.
Due to Mrs. Steen’s debilitating disease, she entered the nursing home in 1991. Although the disease robbed her many abilities and pleasures in life, it never took away her love for her family and friends.
Her survivors include her mother, Ruth Ovitz, Baker; her children, Bryant (Betty) Steen, Baker, Kelly (Laura) Steen, Kinsey, Joy Lynn Beattie, Gillette, Wyo., and Terry (Cindy) Steen, Spearfish, S.D.; three brothers, John (Kay) Ovitz, Camp Crook, S.D., David (Kieko) Ovitz, Spearfish and Bruce (Karen) Ovitz, Janesville, Calif.; two sisters, Pauline Holsti, Ladner, S.D., and Jean (Gary) Tennant, Camp Crook, S.D.; and 15 grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her father, Otto Ovitz.
The family requests memorials be made to the Fallon Medical Complex Nursing Home.
Arrangements were under the direction of Stevenson Funeral home of Baker.
Loretta Carranco
Loretta Carranco, 92, of Billings, former Miles City resident, died Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007, in Billings with her family gathered by her side.
She was born on Sept. 8, 1915, to Marcelina Gonzalez and Juan Martinez in Silas, Mexico. She came to the United States as a very small child with her Mother. They returned to Mexico when her Mother became ill and then died. Mrs. Carranco returned to the United States and was raised by her half sister.
She married
Guadalupe Carranco on Jan. 8, 1932, in Forsyth. They lived in Hysham for several years. Later they purchased a farm in Thurlow and raised their family of 10 children. Miles City became their home when the farm was sold in 1962.
Mrs. Carranco worked at Holy Rosary Hospital and the Custer County Rest Home. After retiring, she continued to do part time home care until 2001. She resided at Eagle Manor for one year. The family moved her to Billings in 2005 to live with her daughter, Theresa, where she received the best of health care until the time of her passing.
She loved to crochet, tend to her flowers and garden and listen to music. “Grammy” adored her grand children and great-grand children.
Mrs. Carranco was preceded in death by her husband, Lupe; her eldest son, Mike; and grandson, David.
Her survivors include Mike’s wife, Barbara, and children, Machelle, Craig and Sydney; son, Louie (Bonnie) and children, Stephanie, Brent and Jennifer; son, Tom (Cindy) and child, Jeanne; daughter, Helen Brabant (Fred) and children, Mike, Debbie and Jeff; daughter, Theresa Carranco, daughter, Mary Moeller (Herm) and children, Brandon and Jacey; son, John (Darlene) and child, Cathy; daughter, Lucy Benge (Doug) and children, Kevin, Todd and Brett; son, Charlie (LeeAnn) and children, Kerry and Ryan; and daughter, Carole Higgins (Wade) and children, Andrea, Matt and Chrissy.
She is survived by 21 grandchildren; 24 great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren.
A Vigil Service will be Friday, Sept. 28, 2007, at Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home. Mass of Christian Burial will be Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007, at 10 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Miles City. Rite of Committal will follow in the Calvary cemetery.
Donations may be made in Mrs. Carranco’s name to Rocky Mountain Hospice or the St. Bernard Catholic Church in Billings.
