Arthur Kenneth Buen, 94, formerly of Nashua died Oct. 28, 2022, in Great Falls. He was born on the Buen homestead Sept. 25, 1928, to Asle and Anna Buen. At that time, he already had four older sisters, Clara, Thelma, Agnes and Bernice. Later, Vivian and Harold were born. In 1933, he started Spring Valley Elementary Country School. All of his eight years, he was the only student in his grade level. In 1946, he graduated Nashua High School. He always started school two weeks late in the fall to help with harvest and two weeks early in the spring to help with seeding the crop. While going to high school, he stayed in the town of Nashua with his sister, Thelma and his brother-in-law, Marvin. In 1948, he started farming the Buen homestead on his own. On June 30, 1954, he married Eleanor Biem at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Poplar. Together, they had four daughters: Linda Lassila, Charlotte Tabacco, Ann Buen and Marjorie Hill. He was a very active leader in the community. Since birth, he was a member of Bethel Lutheran Church of Grain. He was elected to the church council in 1951, serving the roles of treasurer and president. He served continuously for 71 years. He was local Farmers Union president for three years, Montana Farmers Union director for one year, and Montana Farmers Union vice president for 12 years. He served on the Nashua Farmers Union Oil board as a director for 33 years and Nashua Farmers Union Elevator board for seven years. He was involved with the Democratic party, Thrivent, Lukes 100 member for 45 years and served as president for two years. He was an active member of Sons of Norway for 30-plus years. He used his talents of cooking lutefisk and organizing steak fries for various events. He was extremely proud of his Norwegian heritage and enjoyed speaking the language. He loved going dancing with his wife, Eleanor, almost every Saturday night in the winter months. He also loved to play games. He adored all of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and loved every moment he spent with them. He loved and truly cared for all people. He was the one you could always count on to lend a helping hand to others. Farming was his passion and he considered the cows his hobby. Once he reached his 80s, he realized it was too much to care for his cows so he sold them. Recently, he sold his farm to Kevin Tweten, a young neighbor, whom he and Eleanor greatly admired. He is survived by his four daughters, Linda Lassila, Charlotte Tabacco, Ann Buen and Marjorie Hill, all of Great Falls; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Eleanor Buen; five sisters, Clara Siewing, Thelma Garsjo, Agnes Garsjo, Bernice Kummerfeldt and Vivian Siewing; and one brother, Harold Buen. Funeral services will be held Saturday, Nov. 5, at 11 a.m. at First Lutheran Church in Glasgow. Burial will be at Highland Cemetery in Glasgow at noon.

Don Wilson Brown, 86, of Fort Peck died in Billings on Sept. 27, 2022. He was born Dec. 5, 1935, at the family ranch to Dalton and Astrid (Rorvick) Brown with his grandmother Gerda Rorvick as the midwife. He was born and raised on a rural homestead on Shade Creek in McCone County, the Quarter Circle DB. He attended grade school at Illmont School where his mother was the teacher. The two-room school house still stands, barely, as a reminder of an era gone by. To continue his education, he left the ranch to attend Wolf Point High School, graduating in 1953, while living in a boarding house under the care and supervision of Ruby and Melvin Lingle. Many an adventure came from his high school experiences and colorful stories of friendship, fly-ins, country school dances and late-night excursions with a fair amount of mischief mixed in. Over his life, he worked many different jobs including construction, spray pilot, aircraft mechanic, truck driver and cowboy/rancher. He strived to be an excellent “hand” at whatever job he performed, but his true passion was flying. He was granted his pilot’s license the day he turned 16 and proudly wore the badge of “youngest pilot in the state of Montana” for a time. He spent several years as a spray pilot before moving to Helena to attend aircraft mechanic school. This is where he met and married Carol in 1957 and where they lived and raised their family until 1991 when they relocated to Fort Peck to assist on the family ranch. The ranch is where he was truly the happiest — his heart was always in eastern Montana. He would marvel at the sunrises coming over the buttes and would end his day listening to the mourning doves while sitting on the bunkhouse porch. He considered Willis Butte to be his church and would climb to the top to talk to God. He was a naturalist and, while living at and managing the ranch, he strictly enforced a walk-in only policy for hunters and visitors. It was this philosophy that propelled his active opposition to the Keystone Pipeline since it would have crossed several miles of the ranch property. He often said “farmers and ranchers were environmentalists before environmentalists had a name.” He and Carol were best friends during their 64 years together, thoroughly enjoying each other’s sense of humor and engaging in fun-filled “Brown Banter.” They shared values of honesty, hard work, integrity, loyalty and commitment to family and friends. He will be forever remembered for his sense of humor, his storytelling and his kind and generous heart. He was rarely seen without his cowboy hat and distinctive beard. He was proud of his heritage and would celebrate St. Paddy’s Day with enthusiasm and recognition that the Brown’s shared an Irish independence and orneriness, as well as his Scandinavian traits of common sense and frugality. He was preceded in death by his wife, Carol Brown; and sister, Myrna Frye. He is survived by his daughter, Tammie Brown Butler; son, Tracy Brown; and three grandchildren. Memorial services and celebrations will be held in Glasgow and Fort Peck during the summer of 2023.