Ella (Voegele) Murray

Ella Voegele Murray, 97, went home to be with her Savior on November 13, 2020. Due to COVID the immediate family cannot travel at this time so a memorial service will be scheduled for a future date. Local viewing will be held from 10:00 to 11:00 AM CST, Thursday, November 19, 2020, at Barbot Funeral Home in Beulah, ND followed by burial at Beulah City Cemetery.

 Ella was born April 6, 1923 on her family farm south of Beulah, the daughter of John and Christina (Stauss) Voegele. As a young girl she remembered choosing to work outside helping her father and brother doing fieldwork and driving horses instead of helping her mom and sisters in the house. When the day’s work was done, she and her siblings would often sit around and play guitar and sing hymns and old country songs. Ella went to country school through 8th grade, helped on the farm a few more years, and then moved to Beulah to work a series of clerking jobs in town, always parting on good terms with former employers and coworkers. In 1952 having earned her High School Equivalency degree she took bookkeeping and secretarial courses at Capital Commercial College in Bismarck. She applied her new skills at J. C. Penney and Bismarck Paint and Glass, where Ralph Murray tracked her down after noticing she no longer worked in Beulah. He proceeded to court her for several years under the guise of giving her a ride home from Bismarck and saving her brother Alex a trip from the Glen Ullin bus station to the farm. They were married December 17, 1957 and lived on a cattle ranch 12 miles southwest of Beulah.

 Ella was a wonderful ranch partner to Ralph: she did all the bookkeeping, cooked memorable meals for family, guests and haying/branding crews, and loved to ride the pastures on horseback. She served for many years with the Mercer County Farm Bureau, sang in the church choir and served with the Friendly Circle and as Sunday School Superintendent. Faith was very important to Ella; in her own words she “accepted Jesus as my Savior at 17 years of age...and it is by God’s love and grace that He saved me and is upholding me moment by moment.” She was also a great amateur photographer, hanging beautiful prints of horses, cattle and birds in their home.

 Ella and Ralph had one daughter, Patience, born in 1960. They retired to live in Beulah in 1971 and became regulars at high school basketball games. They loved to entertain; Ella never sat down until everyone else was served and you never left the Murray house hungry. They welcomed Calvin into the family in 1981 and took great delight in being grandparents to Josh, Ellie and Sam. When Ralph’s health declined, they moved into the Senior Suites in Hazen where Ella lived for 11 years after Ralph’s passing in 2004. Ella moved in with her daughter and son-in-law in Rogers, MN in 2015, which gave her the opportunity to get to know her five great-grandchildren. However Beulah remained home in her heart.

 Ella is survived by her daughter, Patience (Calvin) Sayler; three grandchildren: Joshua (Ciri) Sayler, Elizabeth (Caleb) Wunderlich and Samuel (Joy) Sayler; five great-grandchildren: Collin, Liam, Elliot, Genevieve and Reid; and one sister, Elsie (Walter) Baier as well as many loving nieces and nephews. Ella was preceded in death by her beloved husband Ralph; two brothers: Edward Voegele and Alex (Ida) Voegele, and three sisters: Emma (Fred) Kessler, Bertha Voegele, and Irene (Ray) Cherrey.

 The family requests memorials be sent to Senior Suites at Sakakawea in Hazen, or the Beulah Congregational Church.

 Arrangements conducted by Barbot Funeral Home, Beulah and Hazen.

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