Mary Wynne Elting

Mary Jane (Sage) Elting, 88, of Great Falls, a homemaker and retired sales clerk, died of natural causes Monday at Peace Hospice.
A wake service will be held at a later date. Cremation has taken place under the direction of O'Connor Funeral Home.
Mary Jane (Sage) Elting was born Aug. 3, 1921, in Billings, to Sheriff Russel J. Sage and Fanny Pearl (Parks) Sage, in the old jail (now the Yellowstone County Art Museum.) Her early years were spent with her younger brother, Russell "Bud" Sage and older sister Helen Viola, residing in the jail with their parents. They lost their father when he was shot and killed by an escaping prisoner in July 1926.
Their mother, who never remarried, raised Helen, Mary and Bud, and they grew to be strong, independent Montanans. The family was shaped by the Great Depression and World War II, and when Mary graduated high school in Billings, she moved to Los Angeles, where she was a contract player for RKO studios and danced with the servicemen at the Hollywood Canteen. When she returned to Miles City from Los Angeles, she met Glenn M. Wynne, a Montana native and son of Dona Laura (Brauer) and Thompson Tipton Rowe III, and they married in 1946, living in Billings, where their first child was born.
They had three daughters and she divorced him in 1955. She began the arduous task of raising three children alone, assisted by her widowed mother and her brother Bud, and his wife, Bernice.
Working two and three jobs in Miles City, she brought up her daughters as she had been reared - strong and independent Montana women. She was active in the volunteer community and was a founding member of the Barn Theatre, a community theater group that began in several old boxcars on the outskirts of Miles City, and continues to this day. Among her many adventurous achievements was a successful climb of the Grand Teton with her dear friend and great love, Dr. Carden W. Hadley.
She married Dr. Andrew Ware Elting, DVM, in 1963, and he adopted her girls and loved them as his own, adding them to his family of a son and a daughter.
Mary and Doc ran a veterinary practice in Miles City; then moved to Billings, where he worked for the USDA as a federal meat inspector and taught English at Eastern Montana College. During this period, Mary also cared for (and fed) several of Doc's students from Miles City Community College. There were so many college students in and out of the house that it was dubbed "The Montana State Home for the Bewildered," and was declared to be open 24½ hours a day. Twenty dozen chocolate chip cookies could vanish in minutes!
In 1966, they purchased the Cloverleaf Ranch on the West Bench in Red Lodge, and established a thriving veterinary practice, and a sheep and cattle ranch that included several exotic "trade" animals, such as a Cameroun Pygmy Goat and a Barbary Sheep, which Doc took in exchange for his veterinary work at the Red Lodge Zoo. He also taught English at Red Lodge High School, while Mary and the girls managed the practice and the ranch.
In 1970, they sold the practice and the ranch, and became landed immigrants in the Kispiox River Valley in Northern British Columbia, Canada, moving lock, stock and barrel to a new Cloverleaf Ranch and a veterinary practice in a new land.
In 1976, Mary and Doc divorced, although they remained good friends, and she returned to Montana to be close to her daughters. She settled in Great Falls and began a new career in retail, working at The Paris and The Bon, and finishing her working life with many years at Kaufman's Menswear.
She retired reluctantly at the age of 67, and began to truly enjoy her passions of gardening and reading. She was a lifelong learner with great curiosity about philosophy, the inner life and the people around her. She had a wonderful sense of humor, a scathing wit, an incisive mind and the ability to laugh at herself. She will be remembered for her love of family, friends and animals, and for her legacy of self-reliance and resourcefulness.
She was predeceased by both parents; elder sister Helen Viola (Clarence) Smith of Absarokee; and younger brother Russell Jefferson "Bud" Sage of Billings. Both former husbands also passed before her, along with dear friend Dr. Carden W. Hadley.
She is survived by her daughters, Dona R. (Grant C.) Stebbins of Great Falls, Dian (Brock) Bowers of Elizabeth, Colo., Debi Hunsicker (James Hautala) of Seaford, Del., Paula Jan (Dr. Richard) Wenham of Colorado Springs, Colo.; a son, Clayton Ross Elting of Henderson, Nev.; her granddaughters, Katie Stebbins Barrett of Portland Ore., Laura Jane Jarrett Handy and great-grandson Aiden of Las Vegas, Nev., and Lian Cynthia Bowers of Elizabeth, Colo.; a grandson, Jefferson Sage Jarrett of Great Falls; her sister-in-law, Bernice M. Sage of Billings; and her dearest friend and longtime companion, Robert E. Darnell, who was her devoted caregiver until the end.
Mary lived a long, glamorous and eventful life. Remember her as she would wish - smile and raise a glass in her memory.
Memorials may be sent to the Great Falls Animal Foundation, P.O. Box 3426, Great Falls, MT 59403.
Condolences may be posted online at www.oconnorfuneralhome.com and/or www.gftribune.com/obituaries.