Olive E. (Brown) Stillson

Olive Eileen Brown, 100, died peacefully on May 5, 2022, at Knife River Care Center, Beulah. A viewing will be held at the Beulah Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 3:00 to 4:30 P.M., Sunday, May 8, 2022. Cremation will follow, with a memorial service to be held in Meeteetse, Wyoming, later in the summer.
Olive was born in Jackson, Michigan on September 2, 1921, to Acel C. and Edna (Lindholm) Brown. Her two beloved younger brothers, George and Robert, were born in Jackson as well. The family moved to Meeteetse, Wyoming, near Cody, in 1925, when she was four. Acel worked for the Pitchfork Ranch near Cody. He built a two-room cabin nearby at Ishawooa, a tiny ranching hub where the kids went to the small country school under the watch of nearby Carter Mountain, her favorite place.

During the depression of the 1930’s, the family removed to Bakersfield, California, where the family picked fruit; and where Olive met her lifelong best friend, Lucille, when they schooled together. The Browns moved to Redmond, Oregon, in late 30’s, where Olive and her brothers graduated high school.  Olive went to work for a pumice plant as an office clerk. She waited tables on the side in Redmond, where she met her husband, Arnold Franklin (Frank) Stillson, Jr. Seems he followed her home from the restaurant and asked her out. They were married on January 17, 1948. They had three children; Arnold F., III; Linda Gail; and Sharon Rae.
As Frank was a Jouneyman Lineman, the Stillson’s had an adventurous life, moving around Washington, Oregon, and later, California; Olive took clerical work wherever they were; was Oregon Highway Dept. cleric and Administrative Secretary for Contra Costa County, California. In the 1970’s, Olive and Frank moved to Meeteetse, Wyoming, where they managed a ranch, and ran the Hot Springs Rural Electric field office.
When Frank retired, they traveled the U.S. in a small motor home, doing genealogy for which Olive had a passion, stopping to visit their kids now in California, Wyoming and North Dakota; and various relatives around the country. They traded the motor home for a home in Golden Valley, ND, in 1997, where they lived for over a decade. Later they moved to Beulah to be closer to daughter Sharon. When Frank passed in 2012, she continued caring for herself and home into her mid-nineties. In 2019, she moved into the Knife River Care Center.
Through her life she was a hard worker, involved in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as Relief Society President, Sunday school teacher, Seminary instructor. She was a talented cook; voracious reader, poetry writer, inveterate gardener, and aggressive Scrabble player. She enjoyed visiting friends and neighbors. Most of all, she loved her husband and children, and spent her life selflessly serving them. 

 She is survived by a son Arnold (Frank) Stillson, III, and wife Jolene of Roy, Utah; daughter, Linda Batchelor, of San Tan Valley, Arizona; daughter and son-in-law, Sharon and John Maupin, of Beulah, North Dakota; 14 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Frank; and son-in-law, Fred Batchelor.

Arrangements conducted by Barbot Funeral Home, Beulah and Hazen.

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