FERNE F. WILLEY : Sheridan native Ferne F. Willey, 88 of Stevensville, Mont.(born 1914) Died Sunday, Jan.5, 2003, at Marcus Dale Memorial Hospital in Hamilton, Mont.She had lived at the Bitterroot Living Center in Stevensville since June.Funeral services are 11: a.m. Friday at Champion Funeral Home in Sheridan. Interment will follow in Mount Hope Cemetery in Big Horn with Alan Barnett officiating. Mrs. Willey was born July 28, 1914, in Sheridan to Frank E. and Maude (Filmore) Harris. Her family ranched on wolf Creek, where she attended grade school.She attended Rancester High School and earned her teaching certificate at Normal School in Billings.
She married Jack Willey. They owned several ranches in Montana. They later divorced. She married Jesse Gorman and lived on his ranch on lower Prairie Dog. After his death she moved to the Big Horn Area. She was active in the Cattlewomens’s organization in Montana and Wyoming. She especially loved Hereford cattle and painted them on items for fund raisers.She remarried Jack Willey in 1979. They were caretakers for the Park Reservoir for three years.In addition to her second husband, she was preceed in death by sisters: Merely Shreve, Ruth Harris and Mollie Frey: a brother, Elmo, husband Jack and two sons, George and Dennis.Survivors include a son, Reid of Corvallis, Montana; a daughter Edne Ruth Madsen of Ellensburg, Wash. Six grandchildren and five great grandchildren.Memorials are suggested to Big Horn Woman’s Club, Box 141, Big Horn, WY. 82833,
JACK E. WILLEY
Nov. 18,1991Jack E. Willey, 78, died Monday of a self –inflicted gunshot wound at his home near Big Horn. Born Sept. 19, 1913, in Sheridan to Chester and Edna Willey, he grew up on ranches in the Sheridan area and Montana. He lived and ranched 53 years in Montana before returning to Sheridan County in 1979. He married Ferne Harris on Oct. 20, 1933 in Hardin Montan. He worked many years for P.R. Krone at the Soap Creek Ranch at St. Xaviers, Montana. And Augusta, Montana the late 1940s, the couple bought a ranch south of Chinook, Montana, where he ran the livestock auction.
Mr.Willey spent his retirement working for grazing associations in the Big Horn Mountains and for three years as a caretaker for Park Reservior.He was honored in 1989 as one of the six Montana Centennial Cowboys. “Jack rode and broke many horses throughout his life and always owned a good one, “his obituary reads:
He enjoyed helping friends and neighbors and was preceeded in death by two sons, Dennis in 1957 and George in 1963.Survivors include his wife, his son Dennis, Willey, Corvalis Monta. A daughter Edna Madsen , Ellensburg, Wash. Six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.Services are 10:am Thursday at Champion Funeral Home with burial in Mount Hope Cemetery, Big Horn.Memorials made be made to Jack E. Willey Memorial Fund in care of Mary Lee Corley, First Interstate Bank of Commerce, P.O. Box 2007, Sheridan Funds will benefit a local cowboy sanction event
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