Gwenlyn Beth (Meyer) Gustin

Gwenlyn Beth Gustin (Meyer) passed away February 17, 2022, at the Liberty County Nursing Home in Chester, Montana. Mom was surrounded by her loving daughters, friends, and the wonderful caregivers at the nursing home at the time of her passing. A Memorial Service will be held at the United Methodist Church in Chester, Montana, on Saturday, March 12, 2022, at 2:00 PM. Gwen’s family would appreciate donations made in her memory to the Liberty County Nursing Home. Donations may be mailed to the Liberty Medical Center Foundation, PO Box 705, Chester, MT 59522 or to the United Methodist Church, 510 W Monroe Avenue, Chester, MT 59522.

Gwen was born to Earl Max Meyer and Marion Clara Meyer (Cole) on December 2, 1927, on her grandparent’s farm near Speed, Kansas. Gwen (never Gwennie or Gwendolyn!) was the third of five children. She completed high school in Prairie View, Kansas in 1945. She worked in a doctor’s office in Norton, Kansas until she married Maurice (Gus) L. Gustin in 1947.

Mom became an army wife and traveled to France, Germany, Colorado, Missouri, and Virginia. Along the way, Gwen and Gus had three daughters and two sons. Mom was an intrepid traveler and enjoyed visiting Europe and various parts of America, collecting beautiful China, crystal, Hummels, and other knickknacks along the way.

Mom, throughout her life, also loved her dogs. Mom’s love of her dogs was an important aspect of who she was. Her children liked to tease her that she loved her pets more than her children. Mom also was a “crafter.” She enjoyed crocheting, knitting, embroidery, sewing and making various folk-art items. Her farming roots were also evident in her love of gardening. Garden plots followed her wherever she lived.

Mom also loved her music and her novels. She had a record collection to rival a disc-jockeys, if you liked Classical, Big Band, Country Music and Lawrence Welk! A favorite story about mom was the time she was driving her son’s 280Z, loaded with the best stereo equipment of its time. Mom pulled up to a stoplight next to a car of young men who had their car stereo on the highest decibels of the latest hip-hop. Mom cranked up her Classical music as loud as it would go and sped off when the light turned green. Mom also owned and read every Nora Robert’s novel and she loved historical fiction novels.

Gus retired in 1967 from the army and moved the family to Fort Collins, Colorado. It was there that mom renewed her passion for the medical field, kindled by her early days working for the doctor’s office in Norton, Kansas. Gwen graduated from a Licensed Practical Nursing School in 1969 in Fort Collins. As an LPN, Gwen worked in the Poudre Valley Hospital and then as an office nurse for a family practice doctor.

Mom had great fortitude and a streak of sheer stubbornness but also grace. She demonstrated great strength that helped her and her family through the trials of the severe illness of a child, raising five children as a single parent when dad was away on military duty, as a survivor of breast cancer, her husband’s cancer, and his subsequent death in July of 1984.

After dad’s passing, mom lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Gwen lived twenty-one of those years with her daughter, Terry, and her family. Mom retired as a medical records clerk at the age of 80. In 2009 she found a new home in Chester, Montana, where her daughter Beth, and her husband, Grover Briggs lived.

Living in Chester brought mom back to her early farming roots. She felt like she had come home again. Her ties to the residents living in the Senior Independent Living Apartments, assisted living and finally the nursing home in Chester, as well as the United Methodist Church gave her a sense of renewal and community. Gwen’s family cannot thank the community of Chester enough for all they did for mom. Mom was truly blessed to make Chester her final home.

Gwen was preceded in death by her husband, her oldest son, Keith and his wife, Ellen. She is survived by her sister Merle Walter, sister-in-law Linda Meyer, daughters Beth (Grover), Terry (Tom), Joyce, son Bruce, and four grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, numerous nieces, nephews, friends, families, and children she “adopted” in her many travels.