Pub. 1 2022 Issue 1

Barbara Jean Montgomery Barbara Jean Montgomery, 66, of Black Eagle, passed away on Oct. 5, 2021. Four years ago, a stroke took away her “spark of life.” COVID took away anything that was left. Barb was born in Minot, ND, on Oct. 10, 1954, to Wesley and Erma Munson. Shortly after that, they moved to Billings, MT. One of Barb’s biggest dreams was to own a horse, which her parents said she could have if they ever lived out in the country. Much to their surprise, her dad eventually found a job as a country school janitor. This meant that Barb could now have her horse. She spoke fondly of having the horse neck-deep in the ditch and jumping off his back to go swimming. Barb became the first in her family to graduate from high school when she graduated from West High School in 1972. After graduation, she married Steven Harren but divorced shortly after that. Barb tried to work as a waitress but ended up pouring a pitcher of beer onto someone who got a little too loud and a little too friendly. She agreed with her boss that she needed a different profession. She determined that it should be a sitting down job, so she became a secretary and worked for Weissman’s in Billings and then the City of Billings at the water department. She met David Montgomery and gave birth to her daughter, Nicole. She moved with Dave to Bozeman and attended Montana State University for a couple of years and the couple married. School was not her thing, and she went to work for Weissman’s again in Bozeman. At the time, she drove a blue Volkswagen Beetle she named “George” to work. One day the temperature was about 20 below, and everyone’s expensive vehicles would not start, but “George” did. The shotgun rider was in charge of scraping the window on the inside since that air-cooled engine could not keep up with four people breathing in that bitter cold. She loved reading romance novels. In fact, she would head to work an hour or more early so she could sit in the parking lot and read before work. In Loving Memory 12 Montana Funeral Directors Association

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