{"id":130815,"date":"2026-08-06T05:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uswps06.newsmemory.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/2026\/08\/06\/mikaela-uchtman-20260805-0312-106113\/?destination=northern-plains-independent"},"modified":"2026-08-06T05:03:04","modified_gmt":"2029-01-22T05:03:04","slug":"mikaela-uchtman-20260805-0312-106113","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/2026\/08\/06\/mikaela-uchtman-20260805-0312-106113\/?destination=northern-plains-independent","title":{"rendered":"Mikaela Uchtman"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Mikaela Jayde \u201cGumpy\u201d Uchtman, 31, died July 25, 2026, in Billings.<br \/>\n\t  Born on May 4, 1995, in Wolf Point to Leon \u201cKerry\u201d  and Linette Uchtman, her story began in the beauty of the northern prairie. Her early years foretold the tenacity and compassion that would define her life. From a young age, she faced adversity  in her education. She was told that learning would always be a struggle  \u2014 that school might be too great a challenge for her. Undeterred by such predictions, she persevered  with unmatched determination, attending Lustre grade and Lustre  Christian High. With courage and relentless effort, she not only overcame  every obstacle but ultimately graduated as valedictorian. Never one to stop learning, she later  pursued online college courses, always reaching for new knowledge.<br \/>\n\t  She poured her heart into everything she did. She worked side-by-side with her father in the oil fields, was bookkeeper at Albertsons, the lumberyard  and a local hospital and eventually found joy at the Frazer Post Office.<br \/>\n\t  Everywhere she went, she brightened others\u2019 days with her infectious smile and boundless warmth. Her daily goal was simple: to lift the spirits of everyone she encountered.  She was known for her exuberant greetings,  her open-armed hospitality  and her remarkable  generosity \u2014 no one left her kitchen hungry and her celebratory meals during holidays welcomed anyone needing a place to belong.<br \/>\n\t  Gifted in countless ways, she was a talented <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"news-destination":[14],"news-source":[11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130995,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130815\/revisions\/130995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130815"},{"taxonomy":"news-destination","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-destination?post=130815"},{"taxonomy":"news-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernplainsindependent.com\/northernplainsindependent\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-source?post=130815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}