Billy Walker

Billy K Walker

July 31, 1935 to Oct. 18, 2024

Struggling with age-related infirmities that robbed him of the simple pleasures in life - mechanicing, hunting, riding a horse, going for drives - and not wanting to be a burden on his family, Billy K Walker, 89, left life the same way he lived it: on his own terms. He died on Oct. 18, 2024, at his home in Bynum.

A graveside service with military honors will be held at the Bynum Cemetery on Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. with Bishop Robert Campbell of the Choteau Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officiating.

Billy was born on July 31, 1935, in Ronan, the oldest child of Roy K and Annie (Hollopeter) Walker. He grew up in Ronan with his younger siblings, Buck, Nelda and Ray.

Billy graduated from Ronan High School and then enlisted for one hitch in the U.S. Army, serving stateside. After his discharge, he married a local girl, Loris Loveless, in Ronan, and they started their family with Roy K and added Jo Anne and Lloyd. Billy was employed in many different jobs in his early years, working in a mine, logging and hauling logs, repairing vehicles and driving truck.

After he and Loris's short marriage ended in divorce, his mother took care of their young children for about a year as Billy continued to travel for work. His travels took him to Great Falls, where he met Phyllis Golie. They were married and made a big blended family with his two sons and daughter and her two sons and daughter, Kent, Jeff and Lorinda. The new family traveled for work and lived in Deer Lodge, Clinton, the Swan Valley and Libby before settling in Bynum in 1972.

They lived in a mobile home next to the old Bynum jail, where Billy operated a mechanics shop. He also worked as the Bynum school janitor and drove school bus in addition to hauling hay and driving truck, mostly in Montana but also cross country to California. In those years, he enjoyed dancing and playing cribbage and pinochle.

Billy and Phyllis divorced in 1978, and he went to work as a heavy equipment operator, working all across the state, mostly between Butte and Billings, on many projects. In 1980, he traveled to work on a construction project on Lake Sacajawea in Longview, Washington. While there, he met a bank teller, Sally Martinsen of Castle Rock, when he came to her window to cash a check. They were married on April 13, 1980, in Longview and Billy worked on several construction jobs there after the eruption of Mount St. Helen's in May of 1980.

In October of 1980, Billy and Sally and her youngest child, Jeff, moved to Montana, living for a short time south of Choteau and then relocating in 1981 to Billy's property in Bynum, where Billy with help from his sons Roy and Lloyd built a new home for the family. His boys remember logging the trees for the beams in the house on the National Forest west of Choteau.

Also in 1980, Billy began working as a heavy equipment operator for Choteau contractor Tom Evensen for several years until he became certified as a crane operator and worked construction projects through the Operators Union in Montana and Utah.

When he wasn't working seasonal construction, he had a number of side jobs, including selling Conklin and Amway products, mobile equipment repair and once, raising pheasants for release on a private hunting reserve.

Billy joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1978 and remained an active and devout member the rest of his life. He served as a missionary leader, young men's leader and office clerk, and he and Sally served a two-year mission in Browning.

Billy enjoyed hunting and fishing, loved his horses (including Sarge and Buckshot and almost every horse he met) and always had a dog or two with names like Jiggers and Snipper and Ole. He liked to take his children and later his grandchildren camping and loved being outdoors. For a time, he was a member of the Backcountry Horsemen.

He enjoyed visiting, and if shooting the breeze came with a wage, he would have been rich. Throughout his life, mechanicing was in his blood, something he did not only to earn a living but also because he simply loved making machines tick.

He could be described as stubborn and a little onery, and he had an engineer's mind with an aptitude for mathematics. He was direct and wanted things done his way but would drop what he was doing to help someone in need. He loved his children, stepchildren and all his grandkids.

His life as a heavy equipment operator was not kind to his body. He suffered back and shoulder injuries and retired from construction in about 2000 though he continued to work odd jobs. In recent years, he battled arthritis, loss of hearing and mobility, congestive heart failure and, heartbreakingly, age-related dementia.

He was preceded in death by his brothers, Buck and Ray.

He is survived by his wife, Sally, of Bynum; his children, Roy Walker of Spokane, Washington, Jo Anne Manula of Harlowton and Lloyd Walker of Vaughn; his sister, Nelda McKinley of Scotts Mills, Oregon; his grandchildren, Mike Walker, Mark Walker of Choteau, P.J. Sizemore, Kenneth Sizemore and Jennifer Sizemore Herlson; stepchildren, Dick Martinsen Jr. of Brady and Tammy Eaton and Jeff Martinsen, both of Choteau; and step-grandchildren, Chase and Colter Martinsen, Sara King, Tyler Rismoen and Madison Martinsen; 11 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews, cousins and other extended family members.

Frontier Funeral Home of Choteau handled arrangements. Memorials are suggested to the Pendroy Volunteer Fire Department and Quick Response Unit, P.O. Box 24, Pendroy, MT 59467.