Veteran Bigfork columnist Barb Strate dies at 89
Longtime Bigfork Eagle columnist Barb Strate died Dec. 1. She was 89.
Strate was a World War II war bride, a survivor of the London Blitz and a model for Vogue Knitting magazine in addition to writing a column for the Eagle for more than 20 years.
“The Eagle has readers, not many, but all over the country she had her own following of people who loved her column,” said Mark Wilson, previous owner and editor of the Bigfork Eagle. “She would see a grand explanation of the universe in a tiny footprint in the snow.”
Mark and his wife, Ginny Wilson, owned and operated the Bigfork Eagle from 1983 through 1997 and were the ones who got Strate to start writing her weekly column, Strate Talk.
Prior to her column, the only writing experience she had was the occasional letter to the editor. But once she got going, her introspective writing about the war, transitioning from life in London to rural Montana, and just enjoying Bigfork flourished and captured her readers.
“She had the English command of the English language compared to the American command, her turn of phrases was exquisite,” Mark said.
Although she stopped writing new columns a few years ago, her writing was published in the Eagle until 2011 when she and her husband, Sherman, moved to Missoula.
“She was somebody that said she wasn’t social, but when she met somebody new you couldn’t shut her up,” Jill Esquivel, Strate’s daughter, said. “People were drawn to her, which, as her children, always surprised us. Not that we didn’t love her of course, but she was mom.”
Her columns and people’s reactions to them brought a new perspective of her to her children: Jill, Jan, David and Jim.
“I always admired her pluck,” Ginny Wilson said. “Sometimes things got her down, but she wasn’t afraid of things. She wasn’t timid. She just had a lot of spunk and pluck and that is what I like most about her.”
In 1990 Strate won an award from the Montana Press Association for her piece about Sherman reuniting with his war buddy, Blackie.
A lot of her writing was about the cultural shock she experienced after moving to Montana in 1945. It was 27 years before she returned to England for a visit, and during that time she had the complete Montana experience, right down to Sherman bringing home bear cubs and serving roadkill for dinner, according to Mark Wilson.
Strate’s oldest granddaughter, Jami Engebretson from Medford, Ore., is compiling all of Strate’s writing into a series of paperback books that will be available for sale online at lulu.com and amazon.com for about $15 to cover the cost of printing. The first volume will be called “Remembering When.”
Strate died Dec. 1 at Grizzly Peak Independent Living while in hospice care in Missoula. Her husband of 70 years, Sherman, is alive and doing well at 94. Jan said he is pleased she didn’t suffer but was unable to do an interview over the phone due to his hearing.
At Strate’s request, she will be cremated with no funeral service. However, Jan said the family will gather sometime during the summer to spread her ashes while releasing butterflies and balloons at her old home at 875 Grand Ave. in Bigfork and her friends and fans are welcome to join them.
“I was saying to myself, when a person passes, if they are remembered fondly and still bring a smile to your face, that is a nice way to be remembered,” Strate’s friend from Bigfork, Judy Bolstad, said. “Sometimes you will meet someone in your life that gives more in life than they ever take away. Sherm and Barb were those kind of people.”