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Obituary:
Published in the Ravalli Republic - June 3, 2004; Hamilton, Montana
Florence G. Wildey, 90, of Hamilton passed away Tuesday, June 1, 2004, at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital. She was born June 16, 1913, in the Robbins Home in Conner where she grew up living with a family of six brothers and sisters.
Florence remembered that most days were filled with working in the garden in the summer, helping her folks put aside vegetables and fruit for the summer and winter and also trucking them to the Big Hole Valley to be sold. She also helped feed and milk, take care of the other animals and hiring out. Florence said that school time was hard and short.
She attended elementary school at Rye Creek in Conner and later attended high school in Darby. Florence remembered spending summers at Medicine Hot Springs in the late 1920s, helping her folks run the restaurant and taking care of the cabins for Ed Smith. In 1930, she married Miles Ray in Darby and together they had five children, Curt, Norma, Ben, Marilyn and Alvin. They lived on the Bud Ray Ranch at the mouth of the North Fork of Rye Creek.
Florence recalled many friends and family who would come and stay for a get away, hunting trip, to brand or to put up hay. After many moves and working for the ACM in Anaconda, ranching, farming and lumber mills, Miles was forced to retire because of his health. Miles later died at their home in Darby in 1962.
Florence married Morris Wildey in 1964 and they lived in the log house Morris built on Medicine Tree Creek. Her life at Medicine Tree, with a family that had doubled in size, was filled doubley with what she loved most, her and Morris' children and grandchildren. Florence loved her family and friends and she was never far from her gardens, flowers and farm animals. Morris died in 1982 and Florence moved to Hamilton where she has lived the past 22 years.
Florence is survived by children, Marilyn and Larry Matteson of Helena, and Alvin and Thelma Ray of Lincoln; step-children, Eldon and Ruth Wildey of Hamilton, Bonnie and Phil Richards of Hamilton, Janette and Jerry Shook of Darby and Janice Applebury of Hamilton; daughters-in-law Darleen Ray of Hamilton and Betty Ray of Burchette, Wash.; two sisters, Helen Peterson of Anaconda and Marie Mayberry of Colorado; 32 grandchildren, 87 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren.
Besides her parents and two husbands, Florence was preceded in death by three children, Curt and Ben Ray and Norma Ray Evers; granddaughter, Debbie Evers Buhler; sisters, Nettie and Sue, and brothers, Arthur (Buzz) and Don; sons-in-law, Jay and Rex Applebury and Lawrence Evers.
Graveside services will be held Friday, June 4, at 2 p.m. at the Lone Pine Cemetery in Darby. Arrangements are under the care and direction of the Daly-Leach Chapel in Hamilton.
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