Matriarch of Stevenson Angus dies at age 100

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by Scott Mansch, Great Falls Tribune

When Jeanette Stevenson was born, the West was still wild.

Nearly 70 years ago, Jeanette and her husband, Jamie, started a small ranch near Hobson dedicated to the Angus cattle industry. After years of perseverance, not to mention blood, sweat and tears, the Stevenson name grew in stature with cattlemen and a business born amid poverty prospered into a family empire that to this day is prominent in Montana and beyond.

But today that empire, Stevenson Angus, is in mourning.

“To lose Jeanette,” said youngest grandson Jake Stevenson, “it's just a historic moment.”

Jeanette Stevenson died Sunday in Lewistown, six weeks shy of her 101st birthday.

“She was the matriarch of our family and of the Angus industry,” Jake said. “Even though she's been hospitalized and in a nursing home for the better part of the last decade, I think she was well revered as the matriarch of the Angus industry. She was very involved in the everyday Angus cattle industry.”

The child of homesteaders, she was born June 29, 1914, in Miles City, and spent her early years in the Powder River Country near Broadus. According to a story by Vicky McCray that appeared last year in the Judith Basin Press, life as homesteaders was fraught with hardship:

“In a piece she wrote for 'Reflections at Sunset,' a compilation of pieces written by members of the Central Montana Writers Group, Jeanette said living on the homestead was not easy,” McCray's story reads. “Folks leaving their homes for the lure of free land did not find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

“Jeanette wrote, 'Instead, they found sagebrush, rocks that resisted the plow, rattlesnakes to be feared, and coyotes and bob-cats that preyed on their chickens and turkeys — and always the wind.'”

But, the Judith Basin Press went on to report, there were advantages to growing up in a homesteader's family.

Wrote Jeanette: “Children grew up with the smell of pines, the sharp sweetness of the sage after a rain, the acrid gumweed in the hot summer sun, and horses — always horses.”

Eventually, Jeanette and her mother, Edith Potter, moved to Hobson. That's where she met her future husband, Jamie R. Stevenson. Jeanette was valedictorian of the Hobson High Class of 1931, the Judith Basin Press reported.

Jamie Stevenson died in 1975. Jeanette, who bore him five sons, each of whom eventually joined the family business, continued to help with the day-to-day details of the ranch.

“We were in visiting Grandma on Mother's Day, just an hour or two before she passed away,” said Jake, “and it was almost like she was holding on just to say goodbye.

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Viewing will be held at Creel Funeral Home Chapel, Thursday, May 14, 2015 4-8:00 PM with the family receiving guests at 6:00 PM. The Funeral Service will be held Friday, May 15, 2015 at 2:00 PM at Lewistown United Methodist Church. Services are under the care of Creel Funeral Home. 



Source:  Great Falls Tribune

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