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Winnie Oakland
Funeral services for Winnie Oakland, 89, of Cartwright, N.D., mother of Paul Oakland of Miles City, were held Wednesday morning, June 25, 2003, in the Zion Lutheran Church in Fairview.
The Rev. Larry Quanbeck officiated. Music was by JoAnn Oakland, Muriel Leach and Ellen Croy. Casketbearers were Paul Oakland Jr., Keith Oakland, Neil Oakland, Oscar Oakland, Jason Hirsch, Cole Hirsch and Eric Stremcha. Ushers were Lyle Sponheim and Don Croy.
Burial followed in the Fairview Cemetery, under the direction of the Fulkerson Funeral Home of Sidney.
Mrs. Oakland died Saturday afternoon, June 21, 2003, in the Sidney Health Center at Sidney.
Born Sept. 8, 1913, in Brinkman, Okla., she was the youngest daughter of Marion and Lulu Stovall Williams. She was raised in the Brinkman area and received her primary and secondary education there. She attended college at West Texas State Teachers College in Canyon, Texas, and Southwestern Technological College in Weatherford, Okla., as well as New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M., and in later years Eastern Montana College in Billings. She taught schools for five years in New Mexico and Oklahoma.
On Nov. 1, 1942, she and Raymond Oakland were united in marriage at Clinton, Okla. While he was serving overseas, she spent four years working as a timekeeper at Boeing Aircraft in Wichita, Kan.
After the war was over, in 1945, they made their home in Cartwright where they raised their family. She taught schools in Richland County, East Fairview School and Sidney Elementary School for 15 years.
After retiring, the couple spent several winters in California where she did some substitute teaching.
Mrs. Oakland was an active member of Zion Lutheran Church in Fairview, participating in women's organizations and teaching confirmation as well as taking part in many Bible studies. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, a 40-year member of Sunshine Homemakers and a member of the American Legion Auxiliary.
Her hobbies included traveling, crossword puzzles, quilting, reading, playing cards and entertaining friends in her home.
In addition to her son and his wife, Paul and Judy Oakland of Miles City, survivors include two more children, daughter, Jane of Dallas, Ore., and son, Dean Oakland, and his wife, Jan, of Cartwright; her grandchildren, Paul Oakland, Jr., and his wife, Marie, Shelley Stremcha, and her husband, Eric, Jennifer Hirsch, and her husband, Jason, Neil Oakland, and his wife, Marla, and Shauna Clark, and her husband, Matt; her great-grandchildren, Cole and Kaitlyn Hirsch and Kyra Oakland; and many nieces and nephews in Texas and Oklahoma.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Ray.
James Price Calk
James Price Calk, 83, known as "Spike" to his family and friends, died from natural causes on Sunday, June 22, 2003, at the Eastern Montana Veterans Home in Glendive.
The first born child of James Crooks and Emma Lee Hoff Calk, he was born Jan. 5, 1920, on his father's ranch west of Jordan. Several years later, when his uncle Bill Hoff came to the ranch to help build a log house for the family, the little boy picked up long iron spikes and presented them to his uncle. Laughing, his uncle took the boy on his knee and proclaimed, "I now christen thee Spike."
As a young man, Mr. Calk liked anything that had to do with astronomy, an interest that shaped the rest of his life. Though he worked as a ranch hand during the day, his real love lay in the stars at night. When most people were sleeping, he was studying, observing and wondering about the stars.
His work led to the publication of three books on astronomy, "Geometry of the Stars," "Perspective Universe" and "The Sun and the Solar System," the last being printed at the time of his death.
After graduating from Garfield County High School at Jordan in 1939, he joined the United States Navy, serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. The explosions of the big shells on deck left him with a hearing loss, which made it difficult for him to communicate. He returned to Montana and worked on ranches in the Bozeman and Forsyth areas.
A tall, craggy man, Mr. Calk moved and talked slowly, but he always had a shelf filled with cookies for the children in his bunkhouse and enjoyed visits with his nieces and nephews.
His survivors include his sister, Marilee Whitmer, who resides in the Garfield County Nursing Home; a sister-in-law, Sandy Calk of Dodson; his nieces, Betsy Jueschke of Elko, Nev., Patsy Hollingberry of Wapato, Wash., Mary Ann Parks of Grass Range, Rita Whitmer of Las Cruces, N.M., Wanda Rosseland of Circle, Barbara Whitmer of Ontario, Canada, Jolene Crum of Livingston; his nephews, Clinton Whitmer of Frazer, Boone Whitmer of Wolf Point, Rex Whitmer of Portland, Ore., and James Calk of Wichita, Kan.; and Jack Bailey, and his wife, Carol, his friends on the Rosebud.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his sister, Rebecca Jones; and his brother, Joe John. Funeral services will be Friday, June 27, 2003, at 2 p.m. in the chapel of Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home in Miles City. Interment, with full military honors, will follow in the Custer County Cemetery.
Should friends desire, memorials may be made to the charity of one's choice.
Edith May Coffman
Memorial services for Edith May Coffman, 91, of Washington, former Miles City resident, were held Saturday, June 14, 2003, in Seattle.
Mrs. Coffman died peacefully on the morning of Friday, May 30, 2003.
The daughter of Donald Alonzo and Hannah Voet Cotton, she was born in a log cabin on Main Street in Miles City where the Masonic Temple now stands on Jan. 23, 1912. She was the first child of a family of four boys and four girls.
In 1924, when she was 12 years of age, she met Harry Coffman, her future husband. He was 17 years of age. They met at a Lutheran Church Walther League group where both attended the youth activities. Mr. Coffman was a journeyman mechanic on the railroad when he was 18. When he was 22 years of age, he received a call to a job at the Bremerton, Wash., shipyards. Mrs. Coffman, who was then 16, eloped (with her father's permission on condition she finish high school).
The couple married on Sept. 24, 1928, in Forsyth and traveled by train to Orting, Wash., where she graduated from high school with the class of 1932.
In 1933, the Coffmans moved to the town of Kittitas in eastern Washington where Mr. Coffman built an auto garage, service station and cafe with living quarters in the rear. In 1936, their first child, Fay Louise, was born and in 1941, their first son, Donald Martin, was born. The family moved to Seattle in late 1941. In 1944, their second son, Melvin Raymond, was born.
After World War II, Mr. Coffman started Real Service and Repair, doing auto rebuild and mechanical work. Mrs. Coffman raised the family, helped with the book work, painted and wallpapered the walls of their large home. She painted and repainted and repainted the kitchen floor. Mrs. Coffman was always busy, doing something, fixing something around the house.
For years she suffered with a back injury from jumping from a Model-T with failed brakes as it was rolling backward down a hill. On her 25th wedding anniversary, she agreed to be one of the first patients for a new experimental procedure in surgery - a laminectomy - fusion of the vertebrae. It was a success for her and she was called back to the University of Washington many times as an example of the success of this new surgery.
Mr. and Mrs. Coffman and their family became active in Masonic orders and she served as a Royal Matron for Amaranth and Worthy Matron for the Order of the Eastern Star. She was a member of the Daughters of the Nile and was a guardian of a Jobs Daughters Bethel.
In 1978, Mr. and Mrs. Coffman celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a renewal of their vows and a traditional church wedding, reception, dance and party they never had 50 years earlier. They were married for 64-plus years and were looking forward to their 65th anniversary when Mr. Coffman died in December 1992.
Her survivors include her daughter, Fay, and son-in-law, Ed Bartels of Edmonds, Wash.; her son, Donald, and Linda of Bothell, Wash., and her son, Melvin, and Lynn of Wenatchee, Wash.; seven grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; two sisters, Verna Benasky of Miles City and Hannah Jean Champlin of Spokane, Wash.; two brothers, Jack Cotton of Alamosa, Colo., and Gary Cotton of Monte Vista, Colo.; many nieces and nephews; and a large extended family.
In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her grandson, David Bartels; and her great-grandson, Jason Satko.
Memorials may be sent to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson Research, Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 4777, New York, NY 10163.
Alvin Stickel
Alvin Stickel, 73, of Fallon died Wednesday, June 18, 2003, in the Prairie County Hospital at Terry.
Born in Terry on Jan. 22, 1930, he was the son of Jacob and Katherine Sackman Stickel. He attended country school on the Fallon Flats and in Fallon. Mr. Stickel graduated from high school in Terry.
He stayed in Fallon and worked on the family farm until February 1952 when he entered the United States Marines in Camp Pendleton, Calif. Mr. Stickel served in Hawaii and Japan until he was honorably discharged in February 1954.
Following his discharge, he returned to the family farm where he farmed and ranched until the time of his death.
On Sept. 30, 1955, he and Herta Kron were married in Fallon.
Mr. Stickel was a member of the Evangelical Church of North America in Fallon.
His survivors include his wife of Fallon; three sons, Karl D. Stickel of Ridgecrest, Calif., Vernon Stickel, and his wife, Lisa, of Glendive and Willard Stickel, and his wife, Lorna, of Torrington, Wyo.; a sister, Annette Pike of Phoenix, Ariz.; and five grandchildren, Kara, Calvin, Kaitlyn, Quinn and Kylie.
He was preceded in death by two brothers, Edwin and Reuban.
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Monday, June 23, 2003, in the Evangelical Church of North America at Fallon. Interment will follow in the Fallon Cemetery.
Stevenson and Sons Funeral Home of Terry is in charge of the arrangements.
Should friends desire, memorials may be made to the Prairie County Nursing Home in Terry.
