Roy Taber

Roy Taber passed away Friday, June 24, 2005, at St. Luke's Hospital in Ronan.

Roy, an avid reader, a philosopher, photographer, antique collector, experimenter, humorist, cook, lover of poetry and music, began his life in Barber, in 1916, on the plains of central Montana. He spent his first few years on his father's homestead near Shawmut until his family moved to the Winnecook Ranch where his father worked the ranch and his mother cooked. He often recalled the memorable childhood he had growing up on the ranch.

He moved with his family to the Anaconda Mining Company Ranch near Anaconda and spent his adolescent years in the vicinity of Anaconda attending high school at Deer Lodge where he was active, especially in FFA and sports. He moved again with his family to the Ronan area where he graduated from high school in the spring of 1936.

In the fall of that year, he married Charity Cornelius. Roy and Charity spent 44 years together ranching, raising a family, and traveling the beaches of Mexico.

During the early years of their marriage, Roy spent some time working the mines at Butte and the foundries of Anaconda. He also spent some time during World War II as an electrician in the shipyards of Seattle. He always returned to his ranching operation west of Ronan on the Round Butte Road and in the Valley View area west of Polson.

Roy and Charity began their southern treks in the late 60s, traveling for several months during the winter and returning to Ronan in the spring. That continued for more than a dozen years until Charity became ill and passed away in 1980. Roy then spent each winter at property they had purchased in Overton, Nev., and each summer at his summer place at Dayton, on Flathead Lake.

An intelligent man, Roy earned his way making wise investments and living conservatively. He read widely, enjoying the works of authors from Socrates to Louis L'Amour or Zane Grey to Rudyard Kipling. He knew much about some things and a little about all things.

Roy was preceded in death by his wife, Charity; his grandsons, Leonard and Raymond; his parents, Jesse and Rosa; his brother, Vernun; and his sisters, Hazel, Lillie, Ruth, and Eleanor,

He is survived by his daughters Marian and Kenneth Dunnwebber and Evelyn and Harold Tusler; his sons, Marvin and Marie Taber and Clarence and Jill Taber; his grandchildren, Debbie Wickum, Marvin Taber, Ron Taber, Tami Punkiewicz, Jerry Taber, Brad Taber, Laurie Kutz, Marsha DeBuff, Karlene Waltman, Chad Taber, and Zachary Jacobson; 22 great-grandchildren and several great-great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29, in the Shrider's Mortuary Chapel. Interment will follow in Calvary Cemetery.

The family requests memorials be made to the Ronan Senior Citizen's Center.