Ethel May Patzer

1933 - 2026

Ethel May Patzer of Red Lodge, Montana, passed away on Thursday, February 19th, 2026, at the age of 92. Peaceful, ready, and surrounded by loved ones. Ethel was born on September 28, 1933, in Motor, Iowa, the 7th of 11 children to Arthur and Edna Adamson. The country school she attended through 8th grade was right across the street from their farmhouse. The Quaker Friends church they attended was just up the road. After graduating from Milo High School, Ethel went to William Penn College in Oskaloosa, Iowa, in education and business, where she was the college choir pianist and crowned May Queen.

She then moved to Helena, Montana, to live with her sister Dorothy, where she worked for the CPA firm, Galusha and Higgins. In the tax off-season, she worked in Yellowstone National Park in the audit office and that is when she met her husband, Bennett Patzer. They were married in 1958. Their daughter, Rebekah (Becky), was born in 1959 in Helena and Ethel continued to work for various tax firms as they moved around the northwest for Bennett's work with the Burlington Northern Railroad. When they settled in the Livingston area, she worked at Lee's Accounting and then Berg Motors as a bookkeeper. She was also active in church activities and clubs, serving as the Clerk for the Livingston Rural Fire Department and as Secretary for the Tax Appeal Board. Bennett passed away in 1992 and Ethel remained in the Livingston area until 1999 when she moved to Red Lodge to be closer to her daughter's family.

She was musical, playing the piano and accordion. While in college she wrote a song called, "Jesus Is My Pilot", which was chosen to be the school's mission conference chorus of the year. After she moved to Red Lodge, she hosted piano lessons in her home for many years and loved having so much music in her life.

She was an avid game player, especially Scrabble, a worker of puzzles, a voracious reader. A fine seamstress, flower and vegetable gardener, contest winner, homemaker. A bowler, hiker, berry picker, maker of jams and jellies.

Over the years, she was a Girl Scout leader, AWANA leader, Sunday School teacher, treasurer and secretary for many clubs and groups, pianist, VBS director, involved in Friends of the Library, and an active member of the Luther Community Church. She loved Jesus and truly lived a life of faith and prayer. A two-time Cancer survivor, she was a resilient woman, who participated every year in the Climb to Conquer Cancer on Red Lodge Mountain, and the annual Fun Run.

Ethel did bookkeeping for Ray Judd Ford and several other businesses in Red Lodge, including the McCampbell Building Owners, which she retired from in 2025 at the age of 91!

A world traveler, Ethel saw much of the United States on various road trips, cruised the Caribbean with a seasick husband, and traveled to Canada, France, England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Amsterdam, and Israel, to name a few. A favorite trip was attending a luau and snorkeling in Kauai for her 90th birthday.

Ethel loved well, and was well-loved. She enjoyed her two granddaughters, Annie Scott (Andy), and their daughters, Miriam and Ingrid, of Durham, North Carolina; and Chelsea (Jon) Milligan and their children, David, James, Elliana and Isaiah, of Papua, Indonesia. They all brought her great joy and she followed their school, sports, dance, and music events.

Her final seven months were spent living with her daughter, Becky, and her husband Kent, in Roberts, MT, after falling and severely breaking her arm. Even with repeated hospital stays, she rallied many times and remained active in family and community activities right up to her final day, where she calmly declared, "Today is the day". She will be greatly missed by friends and relatives and those who called her "Grandma Ethel". A life well-lived.

Ethel is survived by three siblings: William Adamson of Des Moines, Iowa; Maxine Bennett of Silverton, Oregon; Wayne Adamson of Louisa, Kentucky; a cousin, Myra Adamson McCloud of Sun City, Arizona, and numerous nieces and nephews.

A celebration of life will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 7th, 2026, at the Luther Community Church followed by an ice cream social. Ethel will be interred in Mountain View Cemetery in Livingston, Montana.