Search Archived Marriage Records
Bertha Jeanette Sadler
SHERIDAN, Wyo. - Bertha Jeanette Sadler, 92, died Tuesday, Oct. 20, 1998.
Services were held Oct. 26, at Kane Funeral Home in Sheridan.
Joe Siroky
ROY - Joe Siroky, 90, of Roy passed away early Sunday morning at the Central Montana Medical Center of natural causes. He was born Jan. 1, 1908, in Austria the son of John and Mary (Farnik) Siroky Sr., the fourth of 13 children.
He immigrated with his family to a homestead eight miles northeast of Roy at the age of 5 and received his schooling in Roy-area schools. In 1934 he was employed on the construction project of Fort Peck Dam. He was united in marriage to Helen Ann Kostoryz in Billings on June 10, 1935, in a double ceremony with his brother, John and his wife, Marie.
He has farmed and ranched in the Roy area, with his father, brothers and sisters and later with his wife and sons, all of his life. The ranching occupied his time even during retirement. He prided himself on being timely and attentive in the care of his livestock and property. During the 1950s and '60s Joe and his wife of 53 years especially enjoyed Herefords and raised and sold bulls in Central Montana.
Joe was a member of the Roy Presbyterian Church and the Farmers Union.
He is survived by two sons: Kenneth and his wife, Clara Nell, their children, Susanna and Samuel; Roger and his wife, Linda, their children Rande, Alexandra, Hayley and Mariah; and step-grandchildren, Stephanie, Kelsey, Nick and Rachel Gallagher, all of Roy; two brothers: Jerry of Clinton and Mero of Lewistown; four sisters: Abby Abell of Billings, Peggy Dotson of Great Falls, Annie Huff of Lewistown, and Josephine Winter in California; one sister-in-law: Frances Kostoryz of Lewistown; numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his wife in 1988; his parents; sisters, Emma, Mary and Frances; and brothers, Jim, Frank and John.
Funeral services for Joseph Siroky will be Thursday at 2 p.m. in the Cloyd Chapel with interment to follow in Central Montana Memorial Gardens. The Cloyd Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Friends may make memorials to the Roy Presbyterian Church or the Roy cemetery and they may be left at the Cloyd Funeral Home.
Bob D. Swain
CODY, Wyo. - Bob D. Swain, 44, died Sunday, Nov. 1, 1998, at his home near Cody.
Memorial services will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, at the Cody Christian Missionary Alliance. Visitation will be 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, at Siverts-Macy Funeral Home in Sumner, Ill. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, in Sumner with interment in the White Oak cemetery in Oblong, Ill. Ballard Funeral Home is in charge of local arrangements.
George Alvin Dowdy
George Alvin Dowdy passed away from complications with pneumonia, caused by a rare lung disease at Deaconess Medical Center in Billings, Mont. at the age of 69.
George was born on August 29, 1929 in Fort Lupton, Colo., the son of George W. and Marguerite Steele Dowdy. He served in the United States Navy from 1951 through 1954, on the USS Helena, during the Korean War.
On March 30, 1961, George was united in marriage to Patricia Boche at Evanston, Wyo. The family moved to Dayton in 1964. He worked a short time for the forest service and later worked and enjoyed the lumber and fencing construction business.
Interests enjoyed by George include dancing, woodworking, dartball and horseshoes; which in 1990 he won the State Horseshoe Championship. George was truly an avid fisherman.
George held offices and was a member of Dayton Ranchester Rotary Club, life member and past commander of the VFW 10105, life member of the Elks Lodge in Cody, member of the York Rite, the Sheridan Masonic Lodge No. 8 and the Kalif Shrine.
Survivors include his wife, Patricia, of Dayton; one daughter Misty Hosford of both Sheridan and Birney Mont.; one son Darian Dowdy serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss, in El Paso, Texas; one brother Richard Dowdy of San Diego, Calif.; three sisters: Emma Lee Ash and Joan Burns both of Sheridan; Lois Ann Erb of Gillette. Also surviving are five grandchildren: Trinity Allen Carlson, Desiree Gaelen Carlson, Kendal Patricia Carlson, Kenneth Kevin Carlson of Sheridan and Sabrina Rachel Dowdy of El Paso, Texas.
Preceding George in death are his parents, one brother, Bob Dowdy and one sister Darlene Crause.
Memorial services will be held 2p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1998, from Kane Funeral Home with the Sheridan Masonic Lodge No. 8 officiating. The Wyoming National Guard will present the flag.
Memorials can be made to the Shrine Crippled Children's Hospital or to the donors choice in care of Delphine Toner, The First Interstate Bank, P.O. Box 2007, Sheridan, WY, 82801.
MILDRED FEASTER
May 4, 1908 - October 30, 1998
A long time ago, on the northern prairie of Montana, a little pre-school girl was helping her young mother plant potatoes in the virgin sod. The mother would chop a hole with a heavy iron hoe. The daughter would lean over and plop a piece of potato in the hole. Her mother would cover it up. Chop. Plop. Chop. Plop. Except once, the little girl was distracted, or too eager. She leaned over just as the hoe descended. The heavy hoe struck her hard on the top of her head. One can only imagine the terror of the young mother. Taking her daughter into the barn. Telling her to sit still on the bench while mother went to the neighbor for help. One can also imagine the strength and faith of this little girl. Waiting as her mother ran two miles through the fields to the nearest neighbor. Riding on the neighbor's horse drawn wagon as her mother held her during the long trip to the doctor in Harlem, thirty miles away. That little girl was Mildred Feaster. After she was old, Mildred laughed about the incident that left a pea-sized depression in her cranium.
Her mother Anna, and father Tom Michaelson, had homesteaded northwest of Harlem in 1910. Both Mildred and her little sister Florence had been born in Negaunee, Michigan. They moved to Montana when Mildred was two and Florence was just an infant. They farmed with horses. They were frugal. Everyone worked hard. Through bad times and good, they stuck it out - eventually buying adjoining land to expand the farm. Mildred learned to drive a team of horses pulling a plow across those fields. The oldest child, she set an example of hard work for her younger sister - and for her two younger brothers when they came along.
Mildred grew up early. When she was just 13, she and her younger sister "batched" alone in Harlem while attending school. During the winter it was simply impractical for them to travel back and forth from home to school each day. Their mother needed to be home caring for their younger brothers, as well as helping her father with the chores. Mildred cooked, cleaned, got them off to school, made sure that homework was done.
Mildred graduated from high school - which was an achievement for a young woman in those times - but she did not stop there. She set her sights on the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis where she got her Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics in 1930. It is worthwhile noting that while the Great Depression "officially" started with the stock market crash of 1929, the farm economy was depressed for years before that - making Mildred's perseverance all the more remarkable.
Mildred loved teaching math. She taught in small schools in Minnesota and Eastern Montana after her graduation. It was when she was teaching in Winnett that she met John "Johnny" Feaster. They fell in love, then married
in 1941. Mildred would have followed Johnny to the ends of the earth. She quit teaching. She made a home for she and Johnny. She raised a garden and a multitude of beautiful flowers.
Johnny fell ill in 1962 and wasn't able to work. Mildred went back to school at Eastern Montana College (now MSU-B.) She was working on her Master's Degree in preparation for her return to teaching when Johnny died. Mildred was carrying a full load at school and trying to spend as much time as she possibly could at the hospital with Johnny. Johnny died when Mildred left his side to take a final exam in one of her courses. She always blamed herself for not being with him at that moment. Maybe he just didn't want her to have to see him die.
Mildred always wanted children. She and Johnny couldn't have them. But she was surrounded by children anyway. She was devoted to her math students at Riverside Junior High, often working late into the night at her home to develop individual lesson plans for students. She had many nephews and nieces. She held them when they were young and remembered their birthdays. She counseled them as teenagers when they found their own parents to be - well, take your pick: frustrating/maddening/rigid/controlling or just plain non-understanding. She helped them with small but steady gifts of money while they were in college. She bought a nice desk for one of them when he opened his solo law practice in the basement of a downtown office building.
Mildred retired from teaching after she turned 65. It wasn't her choice. Twenty-five years ago, the District had a mandatory retirement policy forbidding anyone from teaching after age 65. It is no small irony that NASA recently concluded that a 77 year old was fit for the rigors of space, while Mildred's former employers had concluded that someone 12 years younger than John Glenn could not possibly be fit for the rigors of the classroom.
Mildred wasn't ready to quit exploring life's possibilities at retirement. She took a Nikon photography class. She learned how to develop her own black & white photographs. She bought her own 4-wheel drive vehicle so she could more easily participate in vacations with her extended family. She cruised the Inland Passage to Alaska, where her little brother Tommy had worked many years ago. She horse packed into the headwaters of Slough Creek in the Beartooths. She visited Old Faithful in winter.
For all of her strengths, Mildred had one flaw. She was not a good housekeeper. She always had stacks of books and magazines laying around. Her dishes weren't always done. Her house was frequently more than a little disorganized. In retrospect, Mildred always had something more interesting to do. Some of us who knew her are grateful, nevertheless, for this heritage. When our houses look like a whirlwind has gone through them, and we'd just as soon not have relatives show up unexpectedly, we can remember the wonderful things Mildred did with her life, and forgive ourselves a little.
Mildred spent the last six years of her life at St. Johns Lutheran Home. It was not her choice, but this time it was her body, not the school district, that failed her. For many, life in a nursing home conjures up despair. While we know Mildred certainly had her moments, she did not stop living. She gained the respect, then friendship, and then love of the residents and staff around her. You see, it is quite easy for some young strong celluloid hero with a stunt double to act courageous. It is quite a different thing to be strong when the body is weak and what is left is the will - and the heart. She was interested and concerned about the lives of others when there were so many things to be concerned about in her own life. She was kind when her pain was fierce.
Mildred's generation preceded the "baby boomers." She lived and achieved much with no "safety net" other than the meager resources of her family struggling to hold on to that dryland wheatfarm five miles from the Canadian line. Mildred was strong, smart, and warm. She found goodness in us when we could not find it ourselves. For those who knew and loved her, the world is a very different place without Mildred in it. We're going to have to live the remainder of our lives without her - comforted only by the knowledge that we had a good teacher.
Mildred is survived by her younger sister Florence Howard, also at St. Johns, her "baby" brother Harry Michaelson and his wife Evelyn of Springfield, Ohio and many nephews and nieces, grand nephews and grand nieces scattered literally from coast to coast. Her family asks simply that you think of her the next time you're tending some favorite flower in your garden. If you wish also to remember her in another way, you may consider a donation to St. Johns Lutheran Home or to Big Sky Hospice, whose staffs did so much to make meaningful and dignified, Mildred's last days on this earth.
Jim Ferguson
HELENA - Jim Ferguson died in Helena on Nov. 1, 1998, after a long illness. James Howard Ferguson was born Feb. 8, 1943, in McAlester, Okla., to Frank L. and Mary Bartlett Ferguson. The family returned to Montana after World War II and Jim attended Montana schools, graduating with the first class from Billings West High School in 1962. He earned a BS degree in Architecture from Montana State University in March 1968.
He served with the U.S. Army in Viet Nam and was honorably discharged in November 1969. He was awarded the Army Commendation Metal for meritorious service in Viet Nam, the combat infantryman's badge and other Viet Nam service and campaign metals.
Jim worked in the architectural field in California and Montana before joining the Montana Department of Highways, now the Montana Department of Transportation, in 1973. He completed a BS degree in Civil Engineering from MSU in June 1977 and was licensed as a professional engineer in Montana. In June 1998, after 25 years of service with the Bridge and Construction Bureaus, Jim retired from the Department of Transportation due to ill health.
Jim enjoyed sharing his hobbies with his nieces and nephew. Fly tying, stamp collecting, classical music, and military and Civil War history were special interests. He will be particularly remembered as an avid and skillful fisherman and talented watercolor artist.
His parents and grandparents preceded him in death. His brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Maxine Ferguson survive, as do his niece and family, Christine and Ken Wilhelm and daughter Sidney; his nephew and family, Scott and Anna Ferguson and their children, Jason and Samantha, all of Helena; his foster niece, Beth Whitehouse of Washington state; and several aunt, uncles, and cousins. His dog and faithful companion, Bear, also survives.
Cremation has taken place. Memorial services will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, at Hagler-Anderson Mortuary. Interment will be in Polson at a later date. Memorials are suggested to the American Cancer Society or the charity of one's choice.
Marian Irene Fulton
GLENDIVE - Marian Irene Fulton, age 84, of Glendive, died Saturday, Oct. 31, 1998, at the Glendive Medical Center. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, in the Chapel of the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home of Glendive with Pastors Carter and Myrna Havner officiating. Interment will be in the Dawson Memorial cemetery in Glendive. Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home is entrusted with arrangements.
Marian was born on June 1, 1914 in Columbia, S.D., the daughter of William and Gertrude (Nelson) Wahl. She moved to Rosebud with her parents. The family later moved to Dillon where Marian graduated from Beaverhead County High School. She moved to Glendive in 1947, where she met and married
Harold Fulton on June 24, 1949. They had made their home in Glendive since that time. Marian had been employed in the office of the Northern Pacific Hospital in Glendive from 1947 until 1961 when she accepted a position with Dr. S.A. Olson as an office manager for the medical clinic that he established. She was employed in that position, working with many Glendive doctors, until her retirement in 1978. Marian had also served as the Dawson County Registrar for many years. Her hobbies included reading, music, crossword puzzles and she had a special love for doing crewel embroidery. Marian was a member of the Glendive United Methodist Church and a past member of the Glendive Jaycettes.
She is survived by her husband, Harold of Glendive; one daughter and her husband, Helen and Fred Hass of Shelby; one son and his wife, William and Marlene Anderson of Vancouver, Wash.; five grandchildren: Krista Holland, Kim Bryant, Darren Anderson, Dina House, and Leigh Zell; and eight great-grandchildren. Marian was preceded in death by a twin sister Muriel Wolfe.
Bruce E. Keahey
SHERIDAN, Wyo. - Bruce E. Keahey, 71, died Friday, Oct. 30, 1998, at the V.A. Medical Center.
Private family services will be held with Ferries Funeral Home in charge. Memorials may benefit the Bethesda Worship Center, Building Fund, P.O. Box 6578, Sheridan, WY 82801.
F. Gordon Kirby
F. Gordon Kirby died Saturday, Oct. 31, 1998, at Aspen Meadows Nursing Home.
The son of Foster Bean Kirby and Bertha Graves Pulliam, he was born on March 9, 1918 in Blanchard, Okla.
He graduated from Blanchard High School in 1935 and was valedictorian of his class. He attended the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., earning a bachelor of science degree in geology. He was a member of the Horse Drawn Artillery of the ROTC and as an undergraduate played freshman football where he was known as "Flash Gordon."
In 1940, he joined Incorporated Petroleum Producers and for the next two years did well site work and geologic studies. In 1942, he went to work for Petty Geophysical Engineering Co. of San Antonio, Texas. This association lasted nine years and involved geophysical operations in seven states and two foreign countries.
On Sept. 18, 1943, he married
Donna Lucille Ellis and the two were together for the next 52 years until Donna's death in 1995.
In early 1951, Gordon joined Murphy Oil Corp. as district geologist of a nine-state region with headquarters in Denver. In 1952, after the company's last popular field discovery, Gordon was transferred to Billings as district exploration manager and in 1954 he was named division operations manager for Murphy Oil Companies Northern Division. In 1958 he transferred to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he was vice president of production and exploration and director of Murphy Oil Company, LTD a subsidiary of Murphy Oil Co.
While in Billings he was one of the founding fathers of the Billings Petroleum Club and served as vice president for Montana for the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association.
In 1968 he transferred to Murphy Oil's home office in El Dorado, Ark., where he was involved in overseas oil and gas exploration and synthetic fuels.
He returned to Calgary in 1969 and started his own company, Kirby Explorations, LTD. In September 1971, after semi-retiring from the oil industry, he returned to Billings and purchased the Cherry Tree Inn for which he was associated with until his death.
Throughout his life he was an avid fisherman and golfer, and many friendships were developed in his pursuit of these two sports. He was a member of the Yellowstone Country Club, the Billings Petroleum Club, and was a Rotarian for many years. He was a member of numerous professional society's.
He was preceded in death by one sister, Judith Gale Kirby and is survived by two sisters: Virginia Salada of Florida and Geraldine Voigt of California; his sons: Douglas G. and wife Susan of Billings, Foster E. and wife Anne of Denver, and William D. and his wife Dianne of Calgary, Alberta; and six grandchildren: Steven, Timothy, Christopher and Kaityln of Billings, and Alexandra and Savannah of Denver.
Visitation will be 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Michelotti, Sawyers & Nordquist, Alderson Chapel. Private family graveside services will be held at Mountview cemetery. Michelotti, Sawyers & Nordquist has charge of arrangements.
In lieu of flowers and other remembrances, the family requests memorials to ZooMontana, P.O. Box 80905, Billings, MT 59108.
Leonard Meidinger
TERRY - Leonard Meidinger, 88, died Saturday, Oct. 31, 1998, at the Eastern Montana Veterans Nursing Home in Glendive.
Prayer services will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, in the chapel of Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home. Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Evangelical Church of North America in Fallon. Interment following at the Prairie County cemetery.
Walter L. Schroeder
My dad, Walter Lewis Schroeder, died Thursday afternoon, Oct. 29, 1998, at Billings Deaconess Medical Center.
Walter and his twin brother were born in Billings at the old St. Vincent Hospital on Division Street on Nov. 6, 1901. Walter was the son of Montana pioneers John H. Schroeder and Olga Lehfelt Schroeder. He spent his boyhood on the family sheep ranch in the Acton area. He and his siblings were schooled at home by a live-in teacher until 1910 when his parents built a home in Billings so the children could attend school. Walter attended Broadwater and McKinley Schools and graduated from Billings High School with the class of 1919.
He attended Montana State College in Bozeman for a year and then worked in Denver before returning to the family ranch. On Nov. 25, 1927, Walter married
Audrey V. O'Donnell. In the spring of 1928, they moved to the farm northeast of Billings, along the Yellowstone River, where they made their home together. They had one daughter, Shirley Ann.
Walter was a good, hard-working, progressive farmer and sheepman. He took interest in community affairs, serving on the local school board for many years. He was a devoted husband and father. He shared 42 wonderful years with Mom before her death on October 16, 1969.
Dad retired from the farm in December of 1973, when he married
Mildred Dover DeCosse. He joined Mildred in her many interests and they traveled. They shared their golden years together until Mildred passed away in September 1990. Dad had a garden and kept a beautiful yard. He shared his extra produce with family and friends. He liked to work with wood and worked in his shop, repairing things and making picture frames for the watercolor pictures he and Mildred painted. Later he took up stitchery and spent hours working on beautiful pictures, which he leaves to be cherished by his family.
Walter is survived by his sister Frances Bentley of Portland, Ore.; his daughter Shirley and son-in-law William (Bill) Michael Jr.; Mildred's three sons Dover Sindelar and wife Irene; James Sindelar and wife Virginia; Robert Sindelar and wife Penny; grandchildren: William Michael III and wife Lynette; Daniel Michael and wife Kathy; Kathleen Kamminga and husband, Jim; Cynthia Michael and husband, John Aakre; great-grandchildren: Lynae Gilbert and husband David; Tina Cusker and husband Brett; Jared, James and Jenna Michael; Shane and Samantha Fisher; step great-grandchildren: Jimmy Kamminga and Lindsey and Christopher Aakre; five great-great-grandchildren: Zachary and Lauren Cusker; Ryan and Morgan Gilbert; Torrey Fisher; niece Diane Bentley, nephews Gene and Tom Bentley; Gary Schroeder and William Cannon.
Loved ones preceding him in death include first wife Audrey; second wife Mildred; grandson Timothy Michael; great-grandchildren Shannon, Michelle and Michael Fisher; his parents, sister Amanda, twin brother Herman, brother Lewis, and Mildred's daughter, Lois Sindelar.
Visitation will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, at Smith's Downtown Chapel. The memorial service will be 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, at Smith's Downtown Chapel with interment at Mountview cemetery. Reception will follow. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to charity of choice.
Raymond A. Stratton
LIVINGSTON - Raymond A. Stratton, 95, of Livingston and formerly from Anaconda and Stevensville, died Saturday, Oct. 31, 1998, at his home.
Graveside committal and burial will be later this week at the Florence-Carlton cemetery in Florence. Franzen-Davis Funeral Home is in charge.
Olga Boese
GLENDIVE - Olga Boese, age 93, of Glendive and formerly of Richey, died on Thursday, Oct. 29, 1998, in Glendive. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1998, at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Richey. Interment will be in Richey cemetery. Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home of Glendive is entrusted with arrangements.
Visitation will be at 9 a.m.- 8 p.m. Nov. 3, at the Chapel of the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home in Glendive and one hour prior to service time at the church in Richey on Wednesday.
Olga was born on Dec. 27, 1904, in Canistota, S.D. She was the daughter of Fred H. and Regina (Senner) Ortman, early homesteaders of Dawson County. She was part of the farming community called Retah Table and had been a resident of Dawson County all her life. Olga married
George Boese on Oct. 10, 1923. Her greatest joy was her home and family. She loved music, books and studied the Bible as the Book of Life to live by.
Preceding her in death were her parents, her husband George, her brother Roy and son Richard.
Survivors include her daughter, Bette Howard of Dickinson, N.D.; sister, Ruth Jantz of Phoenix; nephew, Roger (Marlys) Janke of Santa Clarita, Calif.; one grand nephew, Ross (Patty) Janke of San Diego, Calif.; one grand niece, Roberta Janke and her son Troy of Penn Valley, Calif.; grandchildren: Dennis W. (Ruth) Howard of Denver, Nathan H. (Joliene) Howard of Glendive, Joel W. (Betsy) Howard of Meridian, Idaho, Philip A.G. Howard of Bozeman, Jon P. (Cecile) Howard of New York, N.Y., Brenda (Randy) Bolton of Florence, Doreen (Ken) Merkel of Wichita, Kan., Gordon (Carrie) Boese of Bremerton, Wash., and Garett (Ruth) Boese of Salinas, Calif.; there are 16 grandchildren to carry on her legacy.
We will miss her.
