Bonnie Een

Bonnie Een, 93, passed away peacefully in her sleep on March 2, 2014.

Bonnie Jeanne Horel was born Jan. 19, 1921, in Augusta, Wis., where she graduated from high school in 1938. Through a mutual friend she met Arthur (Smokey) Een, a cowboy from Rudyard, Mont., who happened to be on a cattle selling trip to Minneapolis at the time. Sufficiently smitten, Smokey began a correspondence with Bonnie, and like a tale from "Ranch Romances," he convinced Bonnie by mail to run away from her mother's home and come out to Montana. Smokey met her train in Hingham, Mont., where they were immediately married on July 20, 1938.

The couple started farming a homestead south of Rudyard, surviving some lean years but giving birth in 1939 to Larry, in 1941 to Karen, who died in infancy, and in 1948 to Linda.

After Linda's birth, the couple moved into the town of Rudyard and then into Havre in 1951, where Smokey went to work in the Hill County Sheriff's Department. In 1971 they built and managed the El Toro motel in Havre and then started acquiring more rental properties throughout the West.

The motel and apartment business appealed to them, and they continued to operate facilities in Montana and Arizona until Smokey's death in 1986. One motel proprietorship in particular is worth noting: they owned a Best Western motel in Tombstone, Ariz., where they lived from 1975 until Smokey's death and where Bonnie remained until moving to Boise in 1995. While in Tombstone, the couple found joy in participating in the historical reenactments based on the colorful history of the town.

Bonnie moved to Boise to be closer to her family, and this move resulted in the addition of many new friends for her. She was usually the life of the party, and everyone who knew her was impressed by her feistiness, wit and sense of humor. She was a lifelong voracious reader and a black-belt crossword solver.

Bonnie was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Smokey; an infant daughter, Karen; a grandson, Eric Een; her Horel brothers, Schuyler, Stanley, Marvin and Robert, as well as a sister, Dorothy Kohnke.

She is survived by son, Larry (Myra) Een; and daughter, Linda McCracken (Jesse Caudillo), both of Boise, Idaho; grandchildren, Kim (David) Hostetter, Logan (Mark) Sanders, Jenny (Dan) Wittenberg, Damon (Bobbi) Preite, and Sarah Een; great-grandchildren, Ashlee Ecker, Jaryd Neibaueer, Peyton Watkins and Giana Rose Preite; and a great-great grandson, Aiden Reagan.

No services are being held at this time.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to the Arthur and Bonnie Een Memorial @ North Star School, P. O. Box 129 Rudyard, MT, 59540