Eunice Margaret (Hoeft) Rogers

Eunice Margaret Burke Rogers, age 95, loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother, passed away peacefully of natural causes on Jan. 10 at Marias Medical Center in Shelby.

Funeral services will be held on Wed., Jan. 13 at 10 a.m. at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Shelby.  Interment will follow at Mountain View Cemetery in Shelby.

Eunice was born on April 28, 1920, in Watertown, Wis., to Martha and Paul Hoeft, the fourth of eight children.  As a child of the Great Depression, she was well acquainted with the worst of hard times. This impacted her for the rest of her life of common-sense frugality, savings for a rainy day, practicality in spending and reliance on God through the practice of her Lutheran religion. She learned her ethic of hard work and neat-as-a-pin household from her German mother. She often regaled her family with stories of her mother working long into the night to make catsup and using even the skins of the peaches she canned to make jelly. Nothing wasted, nothing to excess.

At age 10 she and her siblings were placed in an orphanage where she spent the next seven years. It may have been because of that experience that she had such a lifelong tender place in her heart for those who were the less fortunate in life.

After leaving the orphanage at 17, she returned to the family home and it was there that she caught the eye of a dashing young officer of the horse cavalry, Ralph Warren Burke, who had befriended her brother, probably to be nearer to her.  They were married May 6, 1942, and began a storybook honeymoon as she followed him from coast to coast until he went overseas. Their first daughter, Sandra, was born in Davenport, Iowa, while Ralph was away at war. Badly injured in the Battle of the Bulge, Ralph returned to the states, where she followed him to a series of hospitals until his medical retirement as a captain. During their time in Texas, their second daughter, Cheryl, was born in 1946.

The couple settled in Shelby in 1948 and were blessed with their two Montana daughters, Susan in 1948 and Cathy in 1950.  Ralph eventually got into law enforcement and was elected Sheriff of Toole County.  One of Eunice’s jobs was bailiff of District Court.

When Ralph passed away in 1969, Eunice went to work at the Shelby Liquor Store. It was there that she became acquainted with Jabez Rogers, who happened to be the brother of a co-worker. In 1976 they married and, at the tender age of 55, Eunice began a new phase of her life on the farm north of Shelby. Here she was well-equipped to take up gardening, mending of clothing, cooking for a harvest crew and learning to drive the truck. In addition to a new husband, she also became the lovingly adopted mother of three more daughters and finally got her son.

The years on the farm were wonderful years and she and Jay became fixtures at family events and social occasions, the life of any party.

When Jay passed away in 1997, she gave up the farm life and moved into the Townehouse apartments in Shelby, where she lived for the past 20 years.

To lose a second beloved husband was a blow, but never one to dwell on the misfortunes of life, she immersed herself in church, quilting, playing cards, sewing, reading, baking, and a wonderful circle of dear friends, and, of course, as always, her family. Many are those who received the gift of her zucchini bread, muffins and wonderful soups. Her pecan rolls were a special treat. Only days before she entered the hospital she was baking rolls for Christmas dinner.

Throughout her life she was an example to all who met her of a cheerful disposition, a loving heart, a generous spirit. She taught us all how to be a better wife, mother, grandmother, sister, friend, and how to accept and deal with life’s disappointments and tragedies, how to celebrate and be grateful for the blessings. Even in her last days, she was a model to us of grace and dignity and gratefulness for the fullness of her life. She will be missed every day.

Eunice is survived by her daughters, Cheryl Whiting (Val), of Spokane, Wash., Susan Smith (Jim) of Shelby, Janice Peltier (Wade) of Boise, Ariz., Jayne Rogers (Dan Land) of Great Falls, Julie Winter (Randy) of Twin Falls, Idaho, her son William Rogers of Shelby, son-in-law Dennis Hagen of Tiffin, Ohio, brother, Norman Hoeft of Beloit Wis. and sister Dorothy Hanson of Beloit, Wis.  She is also survived by 20 grandchildren, 22 great grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her daughters Cathy Hughes and Sandra Hagen, infant grandson, Max Winter, brother Harold, sisters, Lorraine, Doris and Betty.

In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to the American Heart Association, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, or the Gift of Life Housing Center of Great Falls.