Victor Weinmeister, age 92, was born on leap year, February 29, 1924 at the family home in the farming community of Durham Kansas. He was the seventh child born to German immigrants Mary (Batt) Weinmeister and David Weinmeister. His childhood and early life was full of the difficult responsibilities of farming in the 1930’s, including working the fields with his father’s’ dapple gray draft horses by the age of 8. Victor attended the “Red Top” Country School in Durham where he and his siblings walked to school, in Victor’s case, barefoot. His family survived on very little, but Victor’s days in Durham were always a positive memory in his mind and he spoke of them frequently recalling exactly how many miles it was to each neighbor, to church, and to town.
In the early 1940’s his family moved to Montana. Victor was age 14 at the time and began working for various farmers in the Nashua Community. One such employer offered room and board in an 8×10 cook shack with a cot and a pot-bellied stove. In exchange for these posh accommodations, Victor’s duties included haying, tending cattle and helping the farmers nine year old daughter catch her horse to get to school.
Victor shared the exact same name as his first cousin who also lived in Nashua. For several years the two of them and a local friend Fod Hill began traveling the countryside in an old 1940’s Plymouth to various parts of the United States; including Las Vegas, NV, Pendleton, OR, Chicago, IL and Cleveland, OH roofing US government ammunition igloos. It was during this time that he was put in the driver’s seat to get his crew to the next work site in sort of a “bootlegger” fashion. Driving the winding roads of America full throttle to get the next job done for .50 cents an hour.
At the age of 17, Victor enlisted in the US Marine Corp during WWII. He proudly served his country from 1941 through 1945. He was part of the Fourth Infantry of the Fourth Division. He received an honorable discharge and returned to Nashua to raise sugar beets with his brothers Paul, Harvey and Harry on the Milk River bottom. His eldest brother Edward was killed in WWII. The brothers farmed together for several years and branched into raising cattle, pigs and wheat. During this time, Victor joined the Nashua men’s baseball team and became adept at zinging in pitches so hard it made his catchers’ hand sore. He was even asked to play in a professional league but amazingly declined the offer to pursue farming with his brothers.
Years had now passed and since the school girlcould catch her own horse, Victor roped in the love of his life, Amarlys Joann Moecker, a local rodeo queen and acclaimed farm girl who had just attained a Bachelors of Science Degree in Agriculture from Montana State College. Together Vic and Amarlys bought a farm south of Nashua and pursued their love of farming and ranch life. While raising five children they endeavored to step into unchartered waters and become one of the first ranchers in the area to raise Charolais, Santa Gertrudis, Beefmaster and Maine-Anjou cattle, among other crosses. It was evident they truly loved their cattle as they had a much better running water system than the family home. Vic and Amarlys were also very innovative at the time when they built a Harvestor Silo to develop a complete feed for a high rate of gain in their cattle.
Having been raised with the value of hard work; Victor started his children working on various pieces of a farm equipment at an early age. It wasn’t uncommon to see his youngest son Gene operating the blower and auger to the Silo alone at the age of six. If dad expected you to seed, sommerfallow or cut hay for the day, your rows were to be straight! Victor took great pride in his farming and ranching and worked hard to produce the best beef cattle he could along with the most productive crops.
Even though he expected you to work hard, he would also make your days great fun. Often times he would be up at different intervals at night irrigating and at the end of the day still find energy to hit fly balls to his kids; making us run all over the yard to catch them. Another fun time with him would be when he would sit in the evening to watch TV on his 60’s model black and white and if the screen started to roll, he would stomp the floor to make it stop so he wouldn’t miss a minute of Johnny Carson and All Star Wrestling. Taking drives in the country with Dad growing up was sometimes the most fun of all, getting treated to A&W Root beer, an evening with the kids piled in the back seat of the fin backed Buick stopping at Dairy Queen or riding to Nashua in the grain truck and getting treated to a Fresca out of the Peavy Elevator pop machine. But probably some of the most notable memories were the indescribeable cattle roundups in his Chevy pickups which shall forever be etched in our minds.
He was a very engaged father who always knew the right thing to say and was most kind and generous to his children, grandchildren and those he knew. He followed his children religiously in their school activities and many times braved dangerous storms and road conditions to be in the stands. Listening to his jokes and stories seemed to make time stand still. He was loved unconditionally by all of his children and simply adored by his grandchildren. Despite any of his misgivings, he was a great role model to his family. He was absolutely priceless to us and his words of wisdom, funny sayings and ALL of the fond memories will live in our hearts forever.
In 2005 Victor moved into Nemont Manor in Glasgow. He was very grateful for the care and comfort he received there. He developed Geriatric Parkinson’s in his last years of life moving with his eldest son Duane to receive the best care and attention for his condition. On October 30, 2015, Victor entered into the gates of heaven with his devoted son Duane by his side.
He was preceded in death by his wife Amarlys, parents Mary and David and siblings Mary, Pauline, Edward, Paul, Harry, Harvey and Martha and an infant brother. He is survived by his five children and their families including; son Duane (Bonnie) Weinmeister of Boulder; their children Jeremy (Jennifer) Weinmeister and Wendilee (Kevin) Boden, David, Dillon and Chenik-lynn (Nika); son Randy (Terri) Weinmeister of Great Falls; their children, Mariah (Joe) Stills, Kristina (Joe) Brock, Jennifer (Joe) Dickerson; daughter, daughter Cynthia (Jay) Cole of Willmar, MN and her children Baylie Young, Kayte Cole and Jayne Cole, daughter Mary Lou Remington of Wolf Point and her children Steven and Isaac Remington and Mary and Imani Bighorn and son Gene (Rhonda) Weinmeister of Laguna Hills, CA, and their daughters Hannah and Hailee. He is also survived by 12 great grandchildren.
Viewing for Victor Weinmeister will be held at 11:30 a.m., at Bell Mortuary in Glasgow, with funeral services at 1:00 p.m. Burial in the Nashua Cemetery will follow.