Mary Bertolino Dugan

Mary Ann Forster Bertolino Dugan was born above the drugstore in Roberts Montana on September 20, 1931, and died at home in Billings on September 20, 2017. Although she was a nurse by profession and spent many hours inside of hospitals, these two major events didn't take place in a hospital. This speaks to her “I'll-do-it-my-way” nature. She was a strong, hardworking and determined woman, characteristics needed for raising five children while keeping the books for her husband's trucking company. Her working life started at the age of nine when her dad sent her to pump gas in Fox, Montana and tend to the family's milk cows. She graduated from Roberts High in 1948 at the age of sixteen and was the valedictorian of her class. She graduated from Carroll College in Helena in 1951 with a degree in Nursing. Soon after, she married Rudy Bertolino and moved to Bainbridge, MD where Rudy was enlisted in the Navy. There Mary Ann worked in the psychiatric ward of the local hospital and had their first son, Bryce. They returned to Roberts where three more children were born: Stuart, Mark, and Shelley. The Bertolino family moved to Billings in 1960, where their daughter Melissa was born. When the trucking business was sold in 1977, Mary Ann returned to her nursing career. When one of the local hospitals wouldn't hire her, she took a refresher course, bought a new suit and got a job at the other hospital. Working with chemically-dependent adolescences was the highlight of the second phase of her nursing career. Her marriage to Rudy ended in divorce in 1984. She later married Jack Dugan and spent 20 happy years of traveling, square dancing, and entertaining their families. Mary Ann made it a point to stay connected with her kids and grandkids scattered all over the country. Hosting them at the Red Lodge Rodeo was the highlight of her year. When she could no longer square dance, she took up hiking. When she could no longer hike, she turned to ballroom dancing. Not much slowed her down: cancer, broken bones, arthritis, and Alzheimer's. But after 86 years even on this planet, she decided to call it a day. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made in her name to Unbound, 1 Elmwood Ave., Kansas City, 66103