James Bailey Schnee Jr., 90

James Bailey “J.B.” Schnee Jr., passed away Tuesday night, July 8, 2014, in Whitefish.

He was born in Chinook on Oct. 15, 1923, to Marie (Van de Reit) and James Bailey Schnee. The family lived in Shelby for a time where his father had a creamery, and then for a time up near Babb where his father ran a ranching outfit. The older Schnee children went to a one-room school house there called Camp 66, and it was a pretty isolated place. If the roads weren’t cleared then Santa couldn’t get there on Christmas, (Montgomery Ward mail order). From there they moved down on the Cut Bank River about 15 miles out of Cut Bank and the kids attended school there when they could get into town. The family moved to Columbia Falls when his father purchased a Chevrolet dealership in Kalispell. He graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1941, and was a star basketball and football player. 

He headed off to college in Bozeman but his education was interrupted by the war. He went into the Army in 1943, and was selected to attend Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga. He was promoted to first lieutenant (infantry unit commander and then intelligence staff officer) after seeing heavy fighting in the Philippines, resulting in his becoming a highly decorated combat veteran. At the end of the war he was sent to Japan to assist in the recovery effort and spent the next year there. He returned at the end of 1946, and then resumed his education in Missoula at the University of Montana.

He returned to Cut Bank where his dad had taken up a 50,000-acre dryland farming and ranching concern. He worked for his dad, running the operation, until his father’s passing in 1958, then took over the operation with the help of his brothers and sisters. 

He met Beatrice Eileen Parsons, a registered nurse from Calgary, and they married in 1952. He was a tall, good-looking blond and she was a petite redhead, and together they forged a life based on hard work, an unbreakable bond, community service and taking care of their families. They were perfect examples of the “Greatest Generation.” 

They were an integral part of the community of Cut Bank for over 60 years. Their first child Susan was born when they still lived out at the ranch, and their son Corey was born two years later after they moved to town. They took in the children of his older sister Shirley when she passed away in 1963, adding two more to the family, his niece Judy and nephew Jim.

He was an avid fisherman, outdoorsman and collector of fossils and arrowheads. He loved to play cards. He was the beloved patriarch of our extended families and led by example. “Be kind, be fair, be honest, be resolute.” His smile was so beautiful.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his older sister, Shirley; his younger sisters, Idabelle and Loyette; his wife, Eileen, in 1999; and his son, Corey, in 2007.

He is survived by his daughter, Susan Schnee, and grandson, Jackson Schnee-West, of Whitefish; his brother, Harley, and Shirley Schnee, of Sacramento; his sister, Gloria, and Odell Siebrecht, of Cut Bank; his niece, Judy, and Bruce Buer, and family; his nephew, Jim, and Gail Asbury, and family; his niece-in-law, Deb Christofferson, and family; many other nieces and nephews; and his good friends, Dick and Alice Humble. Many thanks to his coffee-drinking and card-playing buddies for keeping an eye on him during the past few years.

Services will be held in Cut Bank in September.