It's a classic truism that when Spring gets here, old people leave us. I always forget, mostly because I haven't realized who has gotten old. Maybe because I haven't seen them for a while.
For instance, I was rocked with I learned from a visit from the plumber and his helper that Gordon Monroe had died. In my mind Gordie is the same young man in my senior English class in 1962 who announced that he intended to leave high school in April so he could go attend Bible School. He was a good student. Many years later I told him how sad I was that he would give up his diploma like that. Calmly and rather sternly, he pointed out that he had easily qualified for a GED as well as doing well in Bible School, which had been the real core of his life. He had never stopped opposing corruption and evil and took the challenge to authorities before he stopped trying.
Gordon was Bob Scriver's fiberglas man. He made the two giant outdoor statues on the rez: the bucking bull in front of the former Scriver Studio and the bucking horse in front of Babb School. His eye for replication is remarkable. Bob's small crucifix was enlarged to heroic-sized for the front of the Church of Little Flower. Some people feel they have a personal relationship with the figure and want to add decoration to suit the season. A devout woman explained, "He is our Son."
In addition, Gordon became a sculptor of his own subjects, using a bigger scale than Bob's, which were one-fifth lifesize. He specialized in ceremonial events and small social groups like stick gamers. Instead of the plastilene that required molds -- though he was expert at molds -- he used the new plastic-based clay that could be baked directly, becoming hard and permanent. FIMO is one brand. He also ran a Browning motel. I hope his children learned from him, but I don't know them.
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Frances “Francy” E. Hardman, 77, of Dupuyer, passed away Monday, Jan. 28, 2019, from natural causes.
Francy was born in Conrad on Sept. 23, 1941 to Frank and Elizabeth Johnson. She attended and graduated from Valier High School. She married Jay Hardman on Sept. 1, 1961. They were married 57 years until his passing.
Francy worked as a Teacher’s Aide at Heart Butte Elementary School and ranched with Jay and her family. Francy enjoyed a simpler life raising cattle, horses, cats and most importantly her dogs. She enjoyed music, dancing and evening walks with her dogs.
Frances is preceded in death by her husband of 57 years, Jay Hardman; her parents, Frank and Elizabeth Johnson; brother, Roy Johnson; and many close friends and family.
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The Teacher's Aides in Heart Butte were often more stable and helpful than the teachers, because the aides were local and often enrolled. Francy was one of the most sensible and even-tempered, quietly seeing what to do. She mostly worked with the elementary school, but I visited with her in the coffee room. One day she was a little sad; it turned out because they had lost a colt over the weekend. "We know it was a cougar because we found the remains up in a tree."
There is a quiet, rather old-fashioned community that stretches from HB on the rez down along the east front to Dupuyer and close enough to Valier for students to attend there. The land is mostly ranches. This is where Ivan Doig was during his high school years, and he got a lot of attention. Francie was quiet and indigenous, so no formal school people urged her on. She just paid close attention and remained self-owned. She was a dignified woman, much loved by many.
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Kathleen Marie (Stevenson) Barcus passed away in her sleep late in the evening of Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019. She spent the last six years of her life at the Glacier Care Center after suffering a stroke.
Kathy was many things in her 84 years, daughter, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were the most important but she was also an artist in paints and pottery. She was a horticulturalist in that she could grow anything. She loved to bowl, crochet, garden and travel. She was well read and well spoken. She was above all else loved and will be greatly missed.
Kathleen was born in Kalispell on Nov. 9, 1934, to Cyril W. Stevenson and Teresa J. (Rieling) Stevenson. She grew up during the depression at Many Glacier Hotel while her father was the caretaker there and then at East Glacier Park when Cy became the Chief Engineer for the Glacier Park Hotel Company, a subsidiary of the Great Northern Railway. Many are the stories of exciting times in Glacier National Park, where she and her brother ice skated on upper Saint Mary Lake and rode with her father to Wild Goose Island in a car across the ice and had to walk back after it broke down. The car stayed there until the next winter. Stories of her hiking through the park and riding her horses across the as yet unfenced prairie.
Kathy moved to St. Paul to stay with her mother’s family during the final years of the war while Cy became a tank commander in the Pacific Theatre. She finished her eighth-grade year at East Glacier Park and moved onto high school in Browning. Kathy graduated in 1952 and started college in Missoula. She moved back to East Glacier Park and started a job with the post office. She met and married Steve Barcus who had returned from the Navy to resume his job with the Glacier Electric Cooperative. They married and had five children before Steve lost his arm, electrocuted while working at the top of a power pole. The family moved to Browning to buy Park Lanes where they took in and helped raise two more kids. [More accurately, Steve lost both hands, learning to use hooks instead. He was essential to the Browning school board.]
Kathy was very active in Browning’s Garden Club and kept busy running the bowling alley while shepherding her children through school activities. Kathy volunteered and then worked for the Vision Program for Browning Public Schools for a number of years. Steve and Kathy owned and ran Park Lanes from 1963 to 2001. They continued to bowl until 2008.
Kathy is survived by her brother Don (Vicky) Stevenson; her children, Steve (Loyce), Dan (Cindy), Colleen, Jim, Don (Johnel), Will (Jennifer) Wood and Crystal Wood; her grandchildren, Daniel (Tiffany) Barcus, Jeremy (Julie) Barcus, Katie (Joel) Barcus-Kuka, Trecia Taylor, Katelyn Barcus, Jeran Barcus and Callie Wood; and 13 great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents Cy and Pat Stevenson and her husband Steve.
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By the time the second generation was running the bowling alley, the Barcuses wanted to live nearby so, remarkably, they bought the old two-story Masonic Hall, at the side of the town square and remodeled the upstairs for living. I was never there again after we buried T.E. Scriver, Bob's dad in the little auditorium. Kathy also added a garden strip along the side. The last time I saw the Barcuses was at the funeral of Joyce Clark Turvey, the daughter of John Clarke, in the Catholic church in East Glacier. It was after Kathy's stroke so she was in a wheelchair, but she was THERE. Her life connected all over the rez and the Northwest.
These are the kinds of people who hold the reservation together and make it work. The connections are strong and weave in and out of tribal allegiance, age, education, and businesses. Reporters and most government officials from the BIA never know these important people exist at all.
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