Obituaries
Willard LaCounte
Willard “Bud” LaCounte (LeCompte), 98, of Billings, and formerly of Bainville, died Sept. 14, 2021.
He was born May 25, 1923, to Ernest LaCounte and Theresa Portra LaCounte in the Froid area. He had eight siblings. His grandparents had been driven out of Manitoba by the Canadian army when they attacked the French-Ojibwa (Metis) people and drove many of them across the border into the Turtle Mountains where they took refuge with the Chippewa.
When he was five, he was picked up and sent to an Indian boarding school at Fort Totten, N.D. At age 10, he was loaded into the back of a cattle truck and, picking up other Indian boys along the way, eventually arrived at another Catholic-run boarding school in Marty, S.D. He remained at Marty until age 15 when he ran away. He was quickly captured by the local police and returned to the school. He informed the priests that they were not strong enough to hold him and was consequently expelled. He rode freight trains and somehow managed to arrive in Bainville, where he found his mother and was reunited with his family, none of whom he had seen for 10 years. He had discovered a sister was at Marty, but had to remain on opposite sides of a woven wire fence.
He graduated from Bainville High School, working on the railroad in the summer. When he graduated, he and a friend hopped a freight train and got to Seattle, Wash., where he found a booth on the dock hiring workers to build a submarine base in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. He worked there until the Japanese bombed, after which the civilians were shipped back to Seattle.
While home for a short time, he married his high school sweetheart, Vivian Venice Crusch. He then joined the Army, trained at Fort Ord and was shipped to England on the Queen Mary. He was assigned to the 118th anti-aircraft battery. The battery loaded on June 5 and disembarked on June 7 onto Omaha beach, D-day+1.
After the war, he returned, reunited with his wife and worked on the power plant at the Fort Peck Dam project. His military service became increasingly important to him over the years. He visited Dutch Harbor several times and attended several D-Day anniversary ceremonies on Normandy beach. He was awarded the Napoléon Bonaparte Medal of Honour by the French government in 2013 for his role in freeing France.
When the Fort Peck project ended, they moved to Bainville in 1947 where they began, with his mother’s allotment (homestead for Indians), 160 acres of grass and rocks, a veteran’s loan and a prayer, what became quite a successful farming and ranching operation.
In 1985, they retired to Billings. Bud and Venice traveled extensively to more than 87 foreign countries and spent considerable time dancing at various venues in and around Billings, making numerous friends.
Venice died Oct. 18, 2009. Her portrait and ashes still remain on the fireplace mantle, honoring the love and devotion that was their remarkable life story. Their children were raised on the farm with love, hard work, pride and devotion to family. He also enjoyed fishing with his family at Fort Peck and hunting and had a passion for restoring old cars. He took pride in his work and the life that he built with Venice.
He was preceded in death by all his brothers and sisters.
He is survived by a son, Larry, who was born when he landed on Omaha beach; daughters, Linda and Cynthia; and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
Services were held Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 2 p.m. at Heights Family Funeral Home & Crematory in Billings.
