Rosalyn Beam Knadler Wood

Rosalyn Beam Knadler Wood was born at home in 1927, in Willow Creek, Montana to Raymond and Sarah (Bliler) Beam, the eighth of nine children. She passed away at home on June 4, 2024, in the presence of family in Cascade, Montana.

From an early age, Rose loved being outside, helping take care of the family’s animals, especially milking the cows, and playing school with her sister, Alice. Despite growing up during the Depression, she said her family never went hungry. She attended school in Willow Creek and Whitehall, but because of her father’s illness, she quit before she graduated high school and got a job to help provide for the family.

Rose was waitressing in Bozeman when she met Edwin Stanley Knadler. They married in 1945, and had seven children together, Valerie, Edwin, Michael, David, Joel, Leah, and John. They lived in several places in the Flathead Valley, where she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1960, her husband was killed in a tragic accident. To help make ends meet, she trapped and sold muskrats until she became a realtor and started selling land instead.

She met Glen Wood in 1964, when he decided to sell his ranch in Thompson River. They married in 1965 and purchased a ranch in Eureka. Combining her seven children with his five, Patricia, Jeanne, Charles, James, and Debi. They had an even dozen, soon adding another daughter, Rebecca, to make it a baker’s dozen. While ranching and raising a family, she also tasked herself with producing monumental amounts of food, raising hundreds of turkeys, growing three gardens and harvesting apples, pears and cherries from the orchard. As if that weren’t enough, she owned and ran a restaurant, The Wild Rose and she cut and sold Christmas trees every fall with Glen, and much more.

In 1978, the family relocated to a ranch in Sheridan, Montana. True to form, Rose engaged herself in many pursuits. While ranching with her husband, she got her GED, took several courses at Western Montana College in Dillon, managed the Ruby Valley Reruns store, sold insurance, shared the excess from her ever-present garden, and taught community classes on herbs and natural medicine.

Rose enjoyed writing poetry and stories and had several articles and poetry pieces published in the Livestock Reporter, the Friend, the Ensign, and Farm and Ranch Living magazines. She shared her love of gardening in the column Through the Garden Gate, which she wrote for many years for The Madisonian.

Rose loved spending time with family, quilting and making afghans, riding horses, hiking, camping, reading, exploring and traveling (Ireland, Prince Edward Island, Mexico, and many places in between), hunting for arrowheads and garnets, antique hunting, playing horseshoes and whipping everyone at board and card games.  She also enjoyed playing the piano, guitar, and singing.

Rose lived in Montana all of her life except for a brief stay in Sheridan, Wyoming and exemplified both the grit and grace of a true Montana woman. She will be remembered for her great sense of humor, adventurous nature, and ability to see the best in everyone and every situation. She served those around her tirelessly, especially through her church, which she remained active in until the day she passed away.

She was preceded in death by her husband’s, Edwin Knadler and Glen Wood; her daughters, Val Sieler and Leah O’ Brien; and her son, Jim Wood.

She is survived by her children Ed (Bonnie), Mike, Dave (Theresa), Joel (Melanie), and John Knadler, Patti (Jud) Pinson, Chuck (Becky) Wood, Jeanne Wood, Debi (Steve) Gilstrap, and Becca Wood; as well as numerous grandchildren; great-grandchildren; and great-great-grandchildren.

A memorial service in celebration of her life will be held July 13, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Sheridan, Montana.

Rose’s personal motto, and one she wanted her family to follow, was “to keep at whatever they were doing no matter how hard it was, to not give up on anything just because it was hard, and when you lose to be a good loser and not go around whining and moaning about it.”

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith;” 2 Timothy 4:7