Marie Gene Mckee

Marie Gene (Bartlett) McKee, 88, of Corvallis, Montana passed away November 10, 2013 after a long battle with cancer. She was born July 27, 1925 in Spokane, Washington and raised there. Early on she found what would become a lifelong love for animals, particularly horses and dogs, with a special partiality for German Shepherds. She was a member of Campfire Girls which was meaningful to her as she earned badges and worked in different projects. She graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 1943, then attended Northwestern Business School and worked for the duration of World War II at the Fort Wright military base.

Marie married Guy McKee in March, 1947. They soon moved to "Kelly Hill", north of Kettle Falls, Washington, where Guy was head teacher and taught grades 6-8 at the Orient Grade School. Marie developed skills in sewing, making most of her own and her growing family's clothes. She also kept a large garden to help feed the family through the year. Animals continued to be a part of that life in the form of goats, burros, horses, cats and dogs as well as much local wildlife in the very rural setting.

With a change in her husband's job to a new school district, the family moved to Colville, Washington in 1968. Marie also worked for the schools tutoring students and as a classroom and playground aid. During these years she loved attending events of her daughters, still in school: basketball, volleyball, track and swimming competitions. She became an assistant 4-H leader as her daughters' interests moved into horsemanship and was a driving force behind the newly formed Colville Light Horse 4-H Club. She enjoyed being outdoors and was active with gardening, photography, and horses. She competed in endurance and competitive trail horse rides, was a member of related regional and national organizations, and was instrumental in bringing an awareness of endurance riding to the Tri-County area of northeastern Washington. One of her greatest prides was taking her beloved Appaloosa, Darkie, to the status of a registered endurance horse through strenuous competition.

After divorce, she lived in Utah and Arizona, finally settling in the Corvallis, Montana area where she continued gardening, sewing, crocheting, and avid reading. She continued her enjoyment of the outdoors through hiking local trails, always with camera in hand. She kept up and attended many community events and continued her love for German Shepherd dogs by fostering rescue dogs and generally supporting the local German Shepherd rescue program. She worked with the local Humane Society, regularly walking the larger dogs and taking them to visit residents of the Discovery Center nursing home while she wrote letters for those who wished help. She provided strong support for the local literacy program, specializing in helping people of all ages learn English as a second language.

Marie was preceded in death by her parents, Herbert W. Bartlett and Dorothy E. (Kohlhauff) Bartlett, and her brother, Donald H. Bartlett.

Survivors include her son, Craig McKee and his wife Sylvia of Sandy, Utah and daughters, Gail Oglesbee and husband Barry of Gallup, New Mexico, Wendy McKee of Portland, Oregon, Kathy Freeman of Missoula, Montana and Valerie Walker and husband Paul of Thompson Falls, Montana. Marie knew and loved her two granddaughters: Gail's daughter, Dawn Christianson (her husband Scott and children Kerstin and Hunter) and Kathy's daughter, Julia Kniss.

No formal services or memorials are planned. If you wish to honor her memory, donations to any cancer or Alzheimer's organizations, OR THE Marcus Daly Hospice Center would be very appropriate.

"The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time, for the clock may soon be still."