Jimmie Braten

Jimmie Braten was born at the Powell Hospital on November 26, 1955, to two loving parents Randall and Viola Braten. He was the 3rd child of 4, Gene the oldest, Jane his sister, and Russ the youngest. He grew up on the ranches in the Sunlight Basin area with the nomadic life of a cowboy. Always moving and following the herds of cattle as they grazed through the summer to move them back through the Clarks Fork canyon to Clark for the winter and calving. He spent most of his young life doing this and other odd jobs like driving stock trucks for awhile. He and his brothers where always inventing and improving on their equipment with different modifications. He liked to talk about a pickup they made out of a bronco. It had the frame of a bronco, the cab of a 70's ¾ton pickup and they cut and shortened the box of a pickup making their own short box pickup. Jim got married for the first time to Susan in January of 1976 and they had one child together but ended up getting a divorce in May of 1981. Jim got child custody, and like most single parents struggled with the tasks of working all the time and trying to be there for his child, but Viola his mother was there to pick up the slack. He married Beverly in 1984 in Joliet at her Grandparents' home. After their marriage they moved up to the Switchback Ranch, the Right Place, and then the Will James Place in Pryor where in 1985 Bev got pregnant and on September 5, 1986 she had their first son Ward Braten. Bev father's health had started to deteriorate by then and she had moved back to Joliet to help take care of him, during that time Jim was working for Randall and travelling back and forth from Joliet to Pryor. With Jim and Bev being back on her family ranch in Joliet it had started to flourish again; they had hired men, cattle, sheep, and horses the markets were good and things were getting done. On August 21, 1991 they had their second child Wesley Braten. In 1995 Bev's father passed, and in 1998 her mother got ill and they took care of Marry until 2003 when she passed. He loved watching his daughter and two sons grow up and was always there for them with every problem they had to figure out, and tragedy they had to face. His daughter Heather started a family young and gave him his first Grand Baby in July 1993 Desiree. Heather then continued on to college, she continued growing her family and gave him 4 more grandchildren: Tessa, Daniel, Selby, and Cole. She was being a mom for a while, and now she is a dietitian at a nursing home in Idaho. Their oldest son Ward went to college graduated and started showing signs of getting ill but went on to teach school at Roberts. He then started having other symptoms and came back to the ranch to work were it was more comfortable for him. Their youngest son Wesley tried college and said it wasn't for him and went on to the National Guard and also began working for Montana Rail Link. He got married in 2015 to Leah, and in 2016 they gave him a Grand Baby named Kerrick Braten. He lived for a precious 4 and a half months then he passed away from SIDs. Jim took this very hard and between the ranch partnerships being uneasy and the passing of his grandson he had a lot of stress he wasn't going to talk about. In 2017 he was taken to the hospital and came within inches of passing but came out of it, and struggled to keep his health in check for the last year of his life with weekly doctor visits. He lost his wife Bev on September 4,2017. Jimmie's health finally deteriorated enough on May 6, 2018 to take him into the hospital for the last time. After endless testing and 2 weeks in the hospital he was moved into hospice where he lasted one more week until his kidneys failed and he passed away in his sleep the afternoon of May 27,2018 with his sister Jane Irgens at his side.