By HDN Staff
CHINOOK Iva May Thackeray, 84, died Friday, Aug. 10, 2001, at a Havre care center from complications following hip surgery.
Cremation has taken place and a graveside memorial service is planned for 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, in the Highland Cemetery in Havre.
Thackeray was born Sept. 26, 1916, in Missoula to Frank and Alvina Ryan. The family moved to Havre and she attended schools here. She graduated from Havre High School in 1933.
She met William "Web" Thackeray in high school and they married in 1935. They lived on the Thackeray Ranch located in the Badlands northwest of Havre.
Thackeray became a good cook and cooked at the Havre Stockyards and later at Delvins' Cafe in Harlem. She became expert at many ranch jobs, including milking and plowing, and sold cream in five-gallon cans. She ran the Circle Inn Motel in Havre for several years. When she and her husband retired to Chinook, she refurbished the Park Apartments and built the local Laundromat. In 1997, she began writing poems for the Blaine County Journal and signed them all Em-T.
The high point of her retirement years was the publication of her book, "Do You Remember?" It contained many of her poems and pictures of her life through the years.
She was preceded in death by her husband, William "Web" Thackeray, in 1998; son, Patrick; sisters, Louise and Kathryn; and her parents.
Survivors include her sons, Bill of Havre, Greg of Boulder and Tom of Roundup; sisters-in-law, Inez Murch of Glasgow and Ester Naber of Havre; 11 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews.
Arrangements are by Edwards Funeral Home of Chinook.
