Gene Stewart

Gene Lenore Stewart passed away on Monday, March 27, 2023, at Mountain View Living Center at the Veterans Administration in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Gene was born in Gary, Indiana on October 21, 1926, the daughter of Fenton and Mary Bender Spangler.  She married Harland W. Stewart on May 16, 1955, in Portland, Oregon.

Gene lived her life ‘out loud’! When she met Harley, she had been traveling as part of the West Coast Women’s Wrestling group.  She would have the VA nursing staff laughing while she told stories of traveling with a troupe of “pee-wee wrastlers who were mean as snakes.”  As a young girl, Gene learned to trick ride on her much-loved horse, Country.  A promoter for Montana rodeos and his wife took Gene under their wing and introduced her to performing during rodeos.  She would tell us of a trip to Killdeer, MT for a rodeo.  They pulled in late one night, and when they woke the next morning, they were surrounded by tepees.  In December 1951, Gene enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. People often asked what she did in the Marines.  “Nothing,” she would say.  In the early days of women in the Marines, recruitment was a big part of their work. After her marriage, Gene learned to fly.  She became a member of the Ninety-Nines and helped on several Powder Puff Derby events.  She and Harley were both members of the Antique Airplane Association but stopped flying when the “skies became too crazy for their small Monocoupes.” Gene had a life-long love of rodeo, especially bull riding, bareback, and saddle bronc riding. Gene entered the bareback competition at the Sheridan WYO Rodeo in the early 50s.  We believe it was the masculine spelling of her name that enabled her to slip in as a contestant.  She didn’t win. She religiously followed our local riders and rooted for them whenever they rode.  From her youth through her later years, Gene was a prolific artist.  In 2012, she took a class from her friend, Dean States, and after that time, her pictures were in colored pencil as it wasn’t as messy as oils or acrylics.

Gene is survived by her nieces, Sharon (Jim) Bedard and Norma (Ken) Eberts, and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, parents, brother, Norman Spangler, and sister-in-law, Betty.

Per her wishes, there will be no formal services.  Sheridan Funeral Home and Cremations have been entrusted with arrangements.

Online condolences may be made to www.sheridanfuneral.com.