"Bud" Eugene August Thievin Jr.

Eugene August Thievin Jr., age 81, affectionately known his entire life as "Bud," passed away on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017, at his home in Scobey, Mont., after a long battle with cancer. Inurnment will take place in the summer.

The youngest of six children of Eugene Sr. and Jeanne (St. Germaine) Thievin, he was born on Oct. 17, 1935, in the Carbert community north of Peerless, where his family farmed until he was 7 years old. The Thievin family then moved to the present, and now fourth-generation farm located north of Richland.

He and his siblings were self-taught musicians. At a very young age, he learned to play several stringed instruments, which eventually led to him playing guitar with Melvin Werdahl, Vince Bingham and Ken Lekvold; the group known as Mel's Westerners, during the late 50s through the 70s.

He attended grade school in Peerless until the age of 14, and then lived with his Uncle and Aunt, Tom and Kay St. Germaine, so he could attend high school in Opheim where he graduated in 1953.

After high school, he worked for his oldest brother, Alfred, building and repairing grain elevators all around Montana and North Dakota.

He married Myrna Spear in Scobey on Aug. 31, 1958. He was drafted into the United States Army in October of 1958, attended boot camp in Texas, and the couple lived in Germany while he was stationed there. After his discharge in 1960, they moved back to Scobey where their three children, Willie, Michel, and Melissa, were born.

He worked various jobs, such as delivering propane and installing and repairing furnaces with his brother, Phil, at Farmer's Union Carriers in Scobey. He sold Farmer's Union Insurance for 10 years. He and Myrna owned the Four Buttes Bar with her parents, Willie and Margaret Spear, during which time Bud served on the Four Buttes' District School Board, was a member of the Frontier Car Club, Scobey Jaycees, Scobey Athletics, and was on the Daniels Federal Credit Union Credit Committee.

After he and Myrna divorced, he moved to Nashua in 1977 to work for his friend, Mickey, at Whitlow Steel in Glasgow. He later bought and operated Bud's Petrolane in Glasgow, which was located near the current Fossum Ready Mix plant. He was mostly self-employed from that point on.

On May 9, 1979, he married "Toots" (Emma Bondy Kallem). Toots's youngest daughter Myrna lived with them while she finished high school. He helped Toots and her son, James, run the Home Café in Nashua. He and Toots also had their own band for a short time, singing and playing for local dances. He served as mayor of Nashua from 1989-1992. He sold his Petrolane business and purchased the old Nashua Conoco Station in 1988, which he renamed "Nashua Tire." He later sold it to a close family friend, Duane "Squeak" Tihista.

He became "famous" in 2002 when he was cast as "Mayor" in the movie Northfork, which featured actors Peter Coyote, James Wood, Nick Nolte and Darryl Hannah, filmed at the Fort Peck Power Houses. His son, Michel, and other local area Frontier Car Club members were also cast as extras-after their restored era cars were requested for the movie.

After Toots passed away in August of 2002, he moved to Richland to help his brother, Phil, and nephews, Marty and Perry, on the Thievin farm, where they were all raised.

He moved to Scobey in 2010, with plans to spend winters in town and summers in Richland to continue helping on the family farm. Sadly, health issues prevented him from doing the farming.

While living in Scobey, he enjoyed spending coffee hours at both of his son's businesses and getting old tractors running and readied for restoration and for the Old Car and Tractor Parade during Scobey's Annual Pioneer Days in June.

A very skillful and knowledgeable man, there were few things he could not do. He loved to bowl, hunt, collect coins, fish, and follow his grandchildren's activities, but his main passion throughout his life was the love of restoring old cars, pickups and tractors. He was always finding "treasures" he thought his boys needed to buy, which continued right up until his final days.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Toots; two brothers, Alfred and Phillip Thievin; and two sisters, Genevieve Messenger and Virginia Gundermann.

Survivors include two sons, Willie (Lisa Garsjo) Thievin, and Michel Thievin and his wife, Annette, all of Scobey; one daughter, Melissa Beyl, and her husband, Richard, of Fargo, N.D.; three step-daughters, Anita Mayes and her husband, Jim, of Lovell, Wyo, Nancy McCoy and her husband, Danny, of Rock Springs, Wyo., and Myrna Sichmeller and her husband, Larry, of Roslyn, S.D.; a step-son James Kallem and his wife, Leslie, of Powell, Wyo.; together with Toot's family, 11 grandchildren: Tyler Thievin and Brianne Raulston, Amanda and Jared Thievin, Brady, twins Dylan and Jordyn Beyl, twins Ellen Todosichuk and Shiloh Hanzlicek, Eric Short and Ashley May; and eight great-grandchildren: Austin, Natalie and Cade Short, Dylan and Aubrey May, Emma Todosichuk and Hadden and Kaeston Raulston; his closest "buddy"– his sister "Babe" (Vivian); a brother-in-law, Ken Floyd, of Opheim; a sister-in-law, Lorraine Thievin, of Scobey; several cousins, nieces and nephews.

Services were held on Friday, Feb. 3 in Scobey.