Owen Myers

Lee Myers was an extraordinary man. It's hard to paint a picture of the larger than life character he was. Owen Lee Myers was born on April 11, 1936, to Marvin Edwin and Lily Roosevelt Howard Myers in Greenville, Missouri. He was the fourth of five children who grew into adulthood; Lee's twin brother Oran Jay died at a young age, around the same time Lee was struck by lightning. He attended Kansas City high school before running away from home at 15 to live with Melvin and Eleanor Romsa in Cutbank, Montana. Lee traveled and worked many jobs as a young man including cowboy, trapper, miner, wildland firefighter, equipment operator, concrete finisher, and logger. His first son Richard Eugene was born in Salmon, Idaho, in 1956 to Jeraldine Loening who he had married in 1955. He met Florence Louise Birchfield at the Bowman Barn dance in Wickenburg, Arizona in 1956. The two married and his second son Willard was born in Utah, named after a man who had saved his life logging. In 1958 he married Robin LoRen Allred and adopted her daughter Robyn Lee. They settled for half a decade in Salmon, Idaho, and their family grew to include Ernest Lee and Pamela Kay. The family then moved to Blackfoot, ID where he opened the first lumber yard in town. They moved to Salt Lake to be near family and Lee excelled in construction and concrete. In early 1972, he wooed the teller at the bank and married the love of his life: Linda Edwards.

The two briefly lived in Las Vegas where Lee poured a lot of concrete, dealt blackjack at Caesar's, worked at a dude ranch for celebrities, and cowboyed. Lee and Linda later relocated to Billings, MT where they enjoyed 52 years of marriage and supported each other in every endeavor. In Montana, Lee built a thriving concrete business. He loved to cowboy and ranch, and at one point he ran over 2000 head on 64 sections near Red Lodge. He ran a successful gravel mining business and continued to operate West End Sand and Gravel from his home until the end of his life. From selling Christmas trees to “farming rocks”, he always had a creative idea to make a few bucks. Lee was exceptionally tough and he proved throughout his life that he could not be outworked.

Lee's lifelong passion was rodeo which he participated in actively for over 65 years. He tried other events but his love and talent was in bulldogging. He wrestled steers from coast to coast; bulldogging in Madison Square Garden, the swamps of Louisiana, and on the sunny shores of California. For decades he was known by the nickname “Thunder” and had a story or friend in seemingly every town. He was a PRCA gold card member and in 1995 he won the Canadian Senior Pro Rodeo finals for steer wrestling. He made countless friends and drove untold miles hauling horse trailers across state lines. Throughout his life he encouraged many others to rodeo and passed on his knowledge in the arena as a competitor, trainer, mentor, coach, and friend; teaching high schoolers and hazing into his 80's.

His other true love was his family and friends. He was extremely close throughout his life with siblings Earl, Marvin, Ken, and Nita Myers, and Jim and Joyce Romsa. He had 5 children, was a father figure, and an idol to many. A person who would do anything for anyone at any time, “Grandpa” Lee loved his grandchildren & great-grandchildren. He spent endless hours teaching them to ride horses, operate tractors, bobcats & 980 loaders. He will live on forever in the hearts of those whose lives he touched.