Obituary for Marian Virginia Mae Lamont
Marian Virginia Mae Ducolon (m.1 Kenneth Charles Sulenes - m.2 Harold Stanley Lamont) did not want a traditional funeral service nor a memorial on her behalf. She asked that everyone just remember the good times when you knew her. She has tasked family with taking her cremated ashes back to where her life began - her beloved rural area of Millegan in Cascade County, Montana on her father’s Ducolon Homestead on the Smith River.
Marian Virginia Mae Ducolon was born 12-28-1922 in the rural area of Millegan to mother Ellen Mae Mongar (who was from her family’s Tenderfoot Creek homestead off the Smith River, Meagher County) and her father Albert Sylvester (Bert) Ducolon from the 1st Ducolon family homestead in rural Millegan on the Smith River, Cascade County, Montana. Her mother Ellen Mae had 10 siblings and they became a very large extended family when each of those siblings married and raised their children. However, Marian did not personally know any of her mother’s extended family members because of her parents’ early divorce. Later in life, after working on her ancestry, that is when she discovered a very large family she was related to on her mother’s side and her mother’s 4 marriages. Growing up Marian knew all her father’s relatives. Her father Bert was the youngest of 8 children from 2 of his father’s marriages. All Bert’s brothers and his sisters were born in Lakota, North Dakota but moved to Montana when their dad established a homestead. All of those Ducolon siblings married and established homesteads in Cascade and/or Meagher Counties, Montana. Some of Bert’s oldest brothers worked on the 50-mile stagecoach run from Millegan to Great Falls and also worked for wages or trade during seasonal work doing sheep shearing, haying, and cattle roundups. Ranching alone did not pay the bills. This is how her father Bert also grew up and earned wages from the surrounding ranches.
At an early age Marian’s father Bert had his fill of ranching, cows, and horses and started traveling around the local ranches fixing everything mechanical. Bert went to Kansas City for auto mechanics school and then returned to the 2nd Ducolon family homestead of 160 acres established off Lingshire Road on Two Creeks, Meagher County, Montana. After Bert’s father Albert passed in 1923, slowly Bert’s remaining Ducolon brothers, sisters, and their families moved away from the Two Creeks homestead.
Several years after Marian was born, her father got a permanent job as a mechanic and worked in Great Falls at the local garage; they lived above the garage. Marian loved Great Falls and the bigger world it opened to a single child. Her father remarried in 1930 to Pearl Louise Hassard from the Sims area north of the town of Ulm in Cascade County, Montana. Pearl became the mother Marian most remembered. There was a fire at the Great Falls garage and they lost all possessions and Bert’s job. They next moved to Conrad, Montana where Bert found mechanic work and where Marian grew up and graduated from high school in 1941.
Because Marian grew up as an only child, she became quite independent. She remembered that her stepmother Pearl was a very strict Irish lady with many opinions about the local rough-riding rural folk of Millegan and had low opinions of many of the Ducolon ‘relatives’ living out on the homesteads. Since her father was gregarious, he let Pearl set the rules. Marian remembered her family never showed lots of hugging and emotions. Marian also had difficulty showing her emotions. However, all her kindness and sacrifices she made in her life testify to the kind of loving and caring person she was.
WWII was upon us and Marian wanted to see the bigger world beyond Montana. After graduating from Conrad high school, she took the train to Seattle with very little money and looked for temporary lodgings at the YMCA. Next she found a job and then could look for better lodgings. Through a friend she met the Crawfords who had a very large house in the University District of Seattle. Major Crawford was away during WWII and Mrs Crawford rented out her extra bedrooms to young women. Thru savings from her job, Marian entered the University of Washington for 2 years. Marian loved the Crawfords and their easy-going, warm personalities; she lived with them until she married her first husband Kenneth Charles Sulenes 1920-1974 in 1945.
-daughter Dianne Lea b.1949
-daughter Karen Jean b.1950
Marian’s stepmother Pearl passed in 1957 and her father married Katherine McQuaid. Bert Ducolon and Katherine McQuaid had actually known each other as small children growing up in rural Millegan and approx 70 yrs later, they find each other again and marry. Marian’s father Bert passed in 1984 and his wife Katherine in 1992.
Marian’s early marriage years to Kenneth Sulenes were located in a tiny house in North Seattle and then later close to Lake Sammamish on 10 acres with cows and chickens. In the 1950s, the Sulenes family next moved to the early residential area of Clyde Hill, Bellevue. The girls started their 1st grade school year at Clyde Hill Elementary. Daughters Dianne and Karen loved the Clyde Hill kids’ residential scene and had many neighborhood friends they grew up with and are still friends with. While living in Bellevue, Marian worked as a principal’s secretary for the Bellevue School District at Bellevue High School and lastly Newport High School.
In the 1960s the Sulenes family moved to Monroe, Snohomish County, WA and lived on 40 acres which had always been Kenneth Sulenes’ dream. They had horses, Hereford cattle, dogs, cats, and lots of acreage. Daughters were both horse girls. Sadly when Kenneth passed in 1974, Marian had to start over on her own. She sold the Monroe acreage and bought a triplex in Juanita, King County on Lake Washington. Through a long adjustment without Kenneth, she started participating in all kinds of new activities; she joined a canoe club with her daughters and went on many river canoe adventures, she started going to the senior center for activities, she took oil painting classes and started painting her own pictures; and she started sewing classes of all types at the local sewing center. Thru these new activities she met her 2nd husband Harold Lamont who was perfect for her. They married in 1977 and Harold passed in 2004. They had many adventures together traveling by RV all over the US and then being snowbirds every winter in Yuma and Sedona, Arizona. After Harold’s passing, she had to start over again.
Marian enjoyed taking every kind of sewing and quilting class she could find. Next she started teaching sewing classes thru the local sewing center. She created the most amazing fabric wall-hanging art using many different types of fabric paint and sewing techniques. She learned the Japanese art of Sashiko quilting and created many jackets and accessories. Next she started huge quilt projects that each took approximately 1 year for each quilt. She excelled with the more difficult patterns and her eye for color and patterns was amazing.
Marian and the Sulenes family often traveled to Fromberg, Montana to visit her father and 3rd wife Katherine. Marian made the Montana trip many times on her own in her later years. She really enjoyed traveling to the very land that once belonged to her father’s Ducolon Homestead on the Smith River - it is currently called Heaven on Earth Ranch and the land is still intact and engaged in ranching. The ranch also has cabins for rent for both hunters and summer guests. The owners of Heaven on Earth Ranch welcomed Marian with open arms and she even got to see the old, original early 1900's Ducolon cabin while it was still standing on the ranch on a small bluff overlooking the Smith River where her father and his family lived. It was Marian’s wish to have her ashes spread at this location -- wanting to overlook to the east the Smith River and Deep Creek. A fitting name for a place of eternal rest -- the Heaven on Earth Ranch.
She is Survived by: Daughters: Dianne L Chadwick (m.John Chadwick) of Burlington, WA and Karen J Williamson (m-d Craig Williamson) of Burlington, WA. Granddaughter: Kelley Renee Williamson of San Diego, CA and Great Granddaughter Maggie Crickman of Spokane, WA
Marian Virginia Mae Ducolon was born 12-28-1922 in the rural area of Millegan to mother Ellen Mae Mongar (who was from her family’s Tenderfoot Creek homestead off the Smith River, Meagher County) and her father Albert Sylvester (Bert) Ducolon from the 1st Ducolon family homestead in rural Millegan on the Smith River, Cascade County, Montana. Her mother Ellen Mae had 10 siblings and they became a very large extended family when each of those siblings married and raised their children. However, Marian did not personally know any of her mother’s extended family members because of her parents’ early divorce. Later in life, after working on her ancestry, that is when she discovered a very large family she was related to on her mother’s side and her mother’s 4 marriages. Growing up Marian knew all her father’s relatives. Her father Bert was the youngest of 8 children from 2 of his father’s marriages. All Bert’s brothers and his sisters were born in Lakota, North Dakota but moved to Montana when their dad established a homestead. All of those Ducolon siblings married and established homesteads in Cascade and/or Meagher Counties, Montana. Some of Bert’s oldest brothers worked on the 50-mile stagecoach run from Millegan to Great Falls and also worked for wages or trade during seasonal work doing sheep shearing, haying, and cattle roundups. Ranching alone did not pay the bills. This is how her father Bert also grew up and earned wages from the surrounding ranches.
At an early age Marian’s father Bert had his fill of ranching, cows, and horses and started traveling around the local ranches fixing everything mechanical. Bert went to Kansas City for auto mechanics school and then returned to the 2nd Ducolon family homestead of 160 acres established off Lingshire Road on Two Creeks, Meagher County, Montana. After Bert’s father Albert passed in 1923, slowly Bert’s remaining Ducolon brothers, sisters, and their families moved away from the Two Creeks homestead.
Several years after Marian was born, her father got a permanent job as a mechanic and worked in Great Falls at the local garage; they lived above the garage. Marian loved Great Falls and the bigger world it opened to a single child. Her father remarried in 1930 to Pearl Louise Hassard from the Sims area north of the town of Ulm in Cascade County, Montana. Pearl became the mother Marian most remembered. There was a fire at the Great Falls garage and they lost all possessions and Bert’s job. They next moved to Conrad, Montana where Bert found mechanic work and where Marian grew up and graduated from high school in 1941.
Because Marian grew up as an only child, she became quite independent. She remembered that her stepmother Pearl was a very strict Irish lady with many opinions about the local rough-riding rural folk of Millegan and had low opinions of many of the Ducolon ‘relatives’ living out on the homesteads. Since her father was gregarious, he let Pearl set the rules. Marian remembered her family never showed lots of hugging and emotions. Marian also had difficulty showing her emotions. However, all her kindness and sacrifices she made in her life testify to the kind of loving and caring person she was.
WWII was upon us and Marian wanted to see the bigger world beyond Montana. After graduating from Conrad high school, she took the train to Seattle with very little money and looked for temporary lodgings at the YMCA. Next she found a job and then could look for better lodgings. Through a friend she met the Crawfords who had a very large house in the University District of Seattle. Major Crawford was away during WWII and Mrs Crawford rented out her extra bedrooms to young women. Thru savings from her job, Marian entered the University of Washington for 2 years. Marian loved the Crawfords and their easy-going, warm personalities; she lived with them until she married her first husband Kenneth Charles Sulenes 1920-1974 in 1945.
-daughter Dianne Lea b.1949
-daughter Karen Jean b.1950
Marian’s stepmother Pearl passed in 1957 and her father married Katherine McQuaid. Bert Ducolon and Katherine McQuaid had actually known each other as small children growing up in rural Millegan and approx 70 yrs later, they find each other again and marry. Marian’s father Bert passed in 1984 and his wife Katherine in 1992.
Marian’s early marriage years to Kenneth Sulenes were located in a tiny house in North Seattle and then later close to Lake Sammamish on 10 acres with cows and chickens. In the 1950s, the Sulenes family next moved to the early residential area of Clyde Hill, Bellevue. The girls started their 1st grade school year at Clyde Hill Elementary. Daughters Dianne and Karen loved the Clyde Hill kids’ residential scene and had many neighborhood friends they grew up with and are still friends with. While living in Bellevue, Marian worked as a principal’s secretary for the Bellevue School District at Bellevue High School and lastly Newport High School.
In the 1960s the Sulenes family moved to Monroe, Snohomish County, WA and lived on 40 acres which had always been Kenneth Sulenes’ dream. They had horses, Hereford cattle, dogs, cats, and lots of acreage. Daughters were both horse girls. Sadly when Kenneth passed in 1974, Marian had to start over on her own. She sold the Monroe acreage and bought a triplex in Juanita, King County on Lake Washington. Through a long adjustment without Kenneth, she started participating in all kinds of new activities; she joined a canoe club with her daughters and went on many river canoe adventures, she started going to the senior center for activities, she took oil painting classes and started painting her own pictures; and she started sewing classes of all types at the local sewing center. Thru these new activities she met her 2nd husband Harold Lamont who was perfect for her. They married in 1977 and Harold passed in 2004. They had many adventures together traveling by RV all over the US and then being snowbirds every winter in Yuma and Sedona, Arizona. After Harold’s passing, she had to start over again.
Marian enjoyed taking every kind of sewing and quilting class she could find. Next she started teaching sewing classes thru the local sewing center. She created the most amazing fabric wall-hanging art using many different types of fabric paint and sewing techniques. She learned the Japanese art of Sashiko quilting and created many jackets and accessories. Next she started huge quilt projects that each took approximately 1 year for each quilt. She excelled with the more difficult patterns and her eye for color and patterns was amazing.
Marian and the Sulenes family often traveled to Fromberg, Montana to visit her father and 3rd wife Katherine. Marian made the Montana trip many times on her own in her later years. She really enjoyed traveling to the very land that once belonged to her father’s Ducolon Homestead on the Smith River - it is currently called Heaven on Earth Ranch and the land is still intact and engaged in ranching. The ranch also has cabins for rent for both hunters and summer guests. The owners of Heaven on Earth Ranch welcomed Marian with open arms and she even got to see the old, original early 1900's Ducolon cabin while it was still standing on the ranch on a small bluff overlooking the Smith River where her father and his family lived. It was Marian’s wish to have her ashes spread at this location -- wanting to overlook to the east the Smith River and Deep Creek. A fitting name for a place of eternal rest -- the Heaven on Earth Ranch.
She is Survived by: Daughters: Dianne L Chadwick (m.John Chadwick) of Burlington, WA and Karen J Williamson (m-d Craig Williamson) of Burlington, WA. Granddaughter: Kelley Renee Williamson of San Diego, CA and Great Granddaughter Maggie Crickman of Spokane, WA