Solveig Hess

Solveig Carolyn Hess, age 78, of Glendive, passed away Saturday, January 5, 2008 at the Glendive Medical Center. A Life Tribute Service will be held at 2:00 P.M., Wednesday, January 9, 2008 in the Chapel of the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home with Celebrant Sandy Silha officiating. Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home of Glendive is entrusted with arrangements. Solveig was born on January 21, 1929 in Glendive, Montana, the daughter of Martin and Lesa (Roisland) Evans. She was raised and educated in Glendive, and attended a semester at Montana State University long enough to be nominated Rodeo Queen. She married John E. Hess on Valentines Day in 1952 in Bozeman, Montana. She spent her entire life on the family ranch west of Glendive. They raised not only cattle, sheep and Arabian horses, but three daughters on the land her parents homesteaded. Solveig loved to work outside and could out work anyone, but she would never brag...only give that smile she always gave to people. Solveig enjoyed traveling, driving her red convertible, playing cards, and her dogs and horses. She especially enjoyed family time with her daughters and grandchildren. She later bought a home in Billings, Montana to help her sister, Marilynn, who was battling cancer. Solveig was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, John and her sister, Marilynn. Survivors include three daughters, Linda and her husband Charlie Manweiler of Windsor, Colorado, and their son Martin; Tracy and her husband Mark Deketelaere of Columbus, Ohio; Marta and her husband Rodney Asche of Glendive, and their children Devyn and Jarod. Celebrant Service: Today is an important day. This is the day in which we have taken time to gather together to remember and honor Solveig Hess. When the death of a loved one, friend, or important person in our lives occurs, we are hit with the realization that our life has forever changed. An awareness of the significance of their life and how it touched each of us begins to fill our thoughts. We begin to grieve the loss of that person and their touch on our life. And so, today is an important day. As we grieve the loss of Solveig, we will remember her and pay tribute to her life among us, and hopefully we will find comfort and be thankful for having had Solveig in our lives. Not long ago, a friend shared her mind’s picture of Solveig. It was of Solveig, standing by a corral fence, one leg up on a fence rail, leaning toward the fence, looking straight out, surveying all that lay within her view, her horses; her land, her ranch. Solveig was the ultimate western horsewoman. Tall and slim, Solveig held herself and moved with the grace of royalty. She had a naturalness with the horses she loved and rode; she became one with them and they with her. Her style and grace was more that of a model than of a cowgirl. Although Solveig was quiet and unassuming, she had a presence and beauty that spoke volumes. For not seeking attention, Solveig was very noticeable. Thoughts and memories about Solveig naturally bring to mind the Hess Ranch and her Arabian horses. Driving west from Glendive on Interstate 94, you can’t miss the big sign near the highway announcing the Hess Ranch, Arabian Horses. The road dips down into a pretty little spot and you can view the ranch on both sides of the interstate. Solveig was raised on this ranch and spent her life living and working there. Her parents, and later Solveig and her husband John, raised cattle, sheep, Arabian horses, and children on the land. Solveig and her sister, Marilynn, lost their parents at an early age. The sisters were close in age, with Marilynn being a couple of years older. Marilynn had the more outgoing, talkative personality, and would look out for her younger sister, Solvieg, who was the quieter one of the two. Marilynn recognized that perhaps Solveig had the greater love for the ranch and its lifestyle, and so, it was Marilynn who moved on, leaving the ranch in Solveig’s capable hands. But even not being together on the ranch did not stop them from being very close as sisters and friends. Marilynn was living in Bozeman and had just had a baby. She wanted Solveig to come to Bozeman and help with the new child for a time. Solveig did go, showing up in Bozeman with John Hess. They had eloped to get married and Marilynn ended up planning their wedding, and then seeing them off to the West Coast for a month long honeymoon. John’s family only knew that John had went to milk the cows and hadn’t returned. They had no idea where John had gone until after the wedding when Solveig and John telegraphed them that they had married. Upon their return to the ranch, they settled into the ranch house and began their life together. The Hess ranch was run in typical western fashion. The door was always open, the coffee pot was always on, people were always stopping to get a hand with something or lend a hand with something. Before the interstate was built, the ranch was just a short turn off the road. People would stop for gas, food, directions, some came to see the horses, others dropped in for a cup of coffee or to just talk for a bit. Solveig and John were always welcoming. John was a boisterous and generous personality, who opened up their home to anyone in trouble or who needed a place to go. The three daughters, Linda, Tracy and Marta, cannot remember a meal that was just family; there were always ranch hands, friends, relatives, schoolmates, neighbors, anyone who happened to be there at meal time. And if anyone was there when work needed to be done, and there was plenty of that to do, they got to help with whatever chores there might be. Everyone was part of Solveig and John’s ranch family. One of the many who became part of the Hess family was a good friend of Marta’s, Beth Schultz. For Beth, Solveig was a second Mom, and Marta was like a sister. Beth spent a lot of time with Marta on the ranch, and Solveig would giggle at the girls’ antics, and give them chores and responsibilities. One summer, Solveig gave Marta and Beth the job of naming all the Arabian colts. The girls had to go through the horses’ papers and lineages, to properly name each colt. When the time came to sell the colts, Solveig would greet the buyers, visit with them about what they were looking for in a colt, and then Solveig would turn the buyers over to Marta and Beth to show the colts. It made those young girls feel so important to be trusted with that responsibility. But that was how Solveig did things. Solveig’s life on the ranch was spent mostly outdoors. Solveig could keep up with any man when it came to ranch work, and John often said she could bale hay better than any man. John had the cattle and Solveig had the horses. Solveig raised the Arabian’s, built the herd, sometimes to well over a hundred horses, trained them, showed them, winning some national titles, and sold them to horseman all over the United States. The story is, that at one time, the Hess Ranch had one of the largest herds of Arabian horses in the United States, second only to Wayne Newton’s herd. And Wayne Newton tried to buy an Arabian from Solveig. Being involved with horses, Solveig met and became friends with many whose passion was also horses. One of these was the daughter of the founder of John Deere. Solveig took a young horse to Kalispell, Montana, that she and Norm Jimison had trained, to put in a big show. Solveig’s primary competition came from the horse owned by the John Deere family. The horses tied for top honors at the show, and a friendship was formed between the two ladies. Solveig’s three daughters were raised doing ranch chores including working with and taking care of the horses. And although the girls all could ride, Solveig was dismayed that none her daughters had the natural talents and abilities with the horses or love of them that she possessed. But all was not lost as Solveig’s niece, Dory Schwartzenberger, and her granddaughter, Devyn Asche, seemed to have inherited some of those qualities with horses that were such a huge part of Solveig’s life. Solveig was especially proud to watch her granddaughter, Devyn’s horsemanship skills develop with training and competitions. And with Dory, although Dory never lived on the ranch, she loved to visit and spend time with the horses and Solveig. Dory recalls going out along the creek with the older kids, and having been left behind by them. The best part was that Dory’s mother, Marilynn and her aunt Solveig came along in the pick-up, saw Dory by herself, heard what happened with the other kids and let her come in the pick-up with them and go for a ride around the ranch. Dory sat between them and listened to them tell ranch stories, as they drove the ranch. They stopped at a neighbors and had home-made root beer. It was one of Dory’s best times on the ranch and especially as she got to rub it in to the others about getting to spend the day with her mom and Solveig. Dory’s interest in horses became part of her life, as she and her husband have quarter horses. Solveig was especially tickled when Dory acquired a horse with some Arabian blood and last February. Solveig made a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, to see Dory show the horse. Solveig’s nephew, Jack Truscott, remembers his aunt Solveig as someone who would listen to all his stories, and who always had a positive outlook. He too enjoyed her sense of humor and recalls an outhouse at the ranch that Justin Lye built on his return from the war. Solveig told everyone that building the outhouse was Justin’s reward for coming home. Solveig always made visiting the ranch a fun and interesting time. One of the activities that Linda, Tracy and Marta spent time doing with their mother, was agate picking. Crackerbox Creek runs through the ranch, and Solveig loved to hunt agates. She and her daughters would walk miles up and down the creek, hunting the famous moss agates. They would fill burlap bags with the rocks until the bags were full, and leave them along the creek, coming back later with a pick-up to pick up the bags. Solveig and the girls would pile the agates up in the yard and agate buyers would come to the ranch and buy the rocks. The girls used the money to shop for school clothes. Marta says even though she wasn’t much of a horseman, she became a pretty good agate picker. Although Solveig preferred to be out doing ranch work, Linda, Tracy and Marta cannot recall a mealtime that Solveig did not come into the house and put out a spread for all to eat. Solveig was not fond of cooking, but she was good at it, just as she was good at all that she did. Her specialties were chili and roasts. Solveig had a special roasting pan she prepared the roasts in and she served the meat with a gravy only she could make. Solveig did not bake, that took too much time away from being outside working. Instead she had special drawers in the kitchen stocked with snacks, one for the adults and one for the children. The children’s drawer was full of candy and treats. It was the first place every kid who stopped in would go. Solveig’s daily attire included her boots of course, and men’s pants. She wore her hair short. She never carried a purse until her later years. Instead she had a checkbook wallet in her back pocket, a small knife and fingernail clipper in a front pocket, Kleenex and a toothpick. Marta recalls a friend, who upon seeing Solveig from a bit of a distance, thought Solveig was a man. Marta was so embarrassed, she implored her mother to at least carry a purse. Marta probably got one of Solveig’s special smiles over that. Once in a while, though, Solveig would dress up for a special occasion. For not liking to shop for clothes, Solveig had a great sense of style. The few dress clothes she had were always of high fashion and expensive and she wore them well. A favorite item of apparel were leather jackets and coats. A memory of one particular long, leather coat is told by daughter Linda. Linda and Solveig were going on a cruise and decided to go through New York City as they had not been there before. Of course, being in New York, they had to check out the subway. As they waited to go through a rotating turnstile to get to the subway train, Solveig decided to just jump over the gate. She managed to get her long leather coat tangled in the turnstile causing quite a scene. Finally, a man working in the area came over to find out the problem and assist. Both Linda and Solveig were laughing and trying to get Solveig unstuck. By the time it was all over, the man had learned a bit about them before sending them on their way. On the return from the cruise, Linda and Solveig again went through New York City. As they walked down a city street they heard a man yelling at the two “Montana women”. It was the fellow from the subway…he had remembered them. Linda claims it was Solveig’s charismatic personality that made her unforgettable. Solveig did have a way about her. Even though Solveig was a quiet, softspoken woman, she had an endearing smile and giggle. She would often try to insert a bit of humor into many situations and often would speak her piece in one or two witty remarks. One such time was during deer hunting season and her granddaughter, Devyn, was learning to hunt. Guy Schultz had come out and after the hunt was over, Solveig stopped over to see how they had done. Upon viewing the deer from the hunt in the front yard, her only comment was to wonder, who had shot the greyhounds. Solveig had a great sense of adventure and was fun to be with. She enjoyed her beer and cigarettes, the newspapers and magazines, and anything to do with agri news was the best. She was intellegient and well read on current events. She loved a good game of cards, especially rummy with the grandchildren, and she always had a game of solitaire going whenever she was in the house. Her son-in-law, Rod Asche, would tease whenever he went to town, “did Solveig want her usual, cigs, oleo and bread?” But Solveig had her own favorite message for Rod. Rod is from Nebraska and when Rod would get out his Nebraska red attire with the big “N”, Solveig would remind him that the “N” did not stand for Nebraska; it stood for Norwegian. And Solveig had a bit of a soft spot for something other than horses…she loved cars and shopping for them. Once after a cattle sale, Solveig looked at the check in her hand from selling those cattle and remarked about how fun it would be to spend it all on a car. Every Sunday the Hess family would pile into a vehicle and go for a Sunday drive around the countryside just to see how everything was doing. When going somewhere on the highway, Linda, Tracy and Marta swear both their parents drove 115 miles per hour. That was at the time of no speed limits in Montana. The car Solveig really loved to drive was her little red convertible, the one pictured on the memory folder with Solveig and the grandchildren. Dory, who lives in the Denver area, became aware that the person that owned the convertible, wanted to sell it. That owner, by the way was the daughter of the man who owns the Denver Broncos’ mascot horse, Thunder. Dory got the deal all arranged and Solveig had a car of her dreams. Solveig loved when the weather would be warm enough to put the top down and just go cruising. It was one of her greatest pleasures. Another love of Solveig’s was traveling. After the kids were grown, Solveig and Marilynn traveled a great deal together. Solveig loved cruising and daughter, Tracy, spent many vacations with her mom, cruising the warm seas around Mexico and the Carribean, eating and drinking and enjoying the warm sun and the ocean. Solveig traveled to many places, including Alaska, the Panama Canal, Mexico and then there was the “trip from hell” with Linda and Marta and several of their small children. The daughters had bought John and Solveig a trip to Disney World in Florida. John would not go, so Linda, Marta and their very young children went with Solveig instead. The flight to Florida took an unscheduled stop in New York. After arriving in Florida everything that could go wrong, did, including locking the keys in their rental car. The one thing that Solveig really wanted to do was to find a good restaurant and eat lobster, which she loved…but that didn’t happen. Instead they ended up at a gas station stocking up on junk food and snacks. As Solveig sat in the back seat opening a bag of chips she made the comment that at least she could tell everyone about her lobster chips in Florida! But much of Solveig’s traveling came to a halt for a time when Marilynn developed cancer. Solveig moved to Billings to help care for her sister. Some good things came out of her move to Billings. One was she developed a close friendship with her niece, Jana Copps. In caring for Marilynn they shared stories and confidences, meals and shopping trips. Another good experience was Solveig buying a home of her very own in Billings. She had never had her own home, as she had always lived in the ranch house that had been her parents’. Solveig thoroughly enjoyed decorating her new home with finds from garage sales that she and her niece Jana would go to. That house, everything in it and her time and fun with Jana meant a great deal to Solveig. Solveig’s life was centered around her family and the ranch and that is with whom and where she loved, worked, and played and made all the memories. And that is why today is so important. We can look at those memories, we can look at the whole picture of Solveig and her life, and each time we look and remember, we will see and remember it differently, we will discover other facets of Solveig and we will discover other facets of ourselves that Solveig has touched with her life. Let us now listen to “Ave Maria”, a song Tracy remembers her Mom calling a favorite. Song: “Ave Maria” Speaker: A friend of the family, Bill Waite, would like to share a few memories of Solveig at this time. Celebrant: Thank you Bill. In late 2006, Solveig was diagnosed with lung cancer. A lung was removed and Solveig, with only some physical therapy was declared cancer free. The doctors kept telling Solveig how lucky she was. And so, when the cancer returned and had spread, Solveig was especially disappointed, as she had made many plans of thing to do and see. Daughter Linda came to spend time with Solveig as she went through the cancer treatments. Linda calls this time their “12 days of Christmas”. She watched her mother deal with the cancer and treatments, they watched Hallmark movies, visited, and had important conversations with each other. Linda observed her mother grow more accepting and calmer about what was happening, and an awareness of living and enjoying each day as it came, became important to both Solveig and Linda. As Linda drove home from those twelve days, she wrote a Christmas letter to the other family members about her thoughts and feelings from this time spent with her mother. Linda felt that Solveig was always the peacemaker and hurt healer of the family, and this was Linda’s attempt to carry on Solveig’s tradition of healing, and for Linda to share what she had learned from Solveig. Included in the letter were 23 proverbs, including the following two: “every season brings its own joy” and “the journey is the reward”. Those twelve days were a very special time for Linda and Solveig. With the death of Solveig, we have lost an important person. Solveig had seen so many go before her that she, in her quiet, unassuming way, didn’t feel there were many left to grieve her passing. There is no finer tribute to Solveig than the number of people who have come here today to remember her. Solveig and the Hess Ranch have a rich history in this community, and it will be carried on by Solveig’s family and daughter Marta Asche and her family, who now live on the Hess Ranch. If you have a story or memory of Solveig, share it with the family today and in the coming weeks. Make a special point to let Solveig’s family know how she touched your life. For Solveig will live on in the memories, she will live on in the lives she has touched, she will live on in the lives of those who love her, and you may catch a glimpse of Solveig in the faces of her daughters, in the eyes of her grandchildren, and in the spirit of the horses she loved. Solveig’s wish was to be cremated and her cremated remains taken back to the ranch. There is a special hill on the ranch, north of the interstate where Solveig will join other family members who have died. A great-uncle, Cornelius, cousins Justin and Bobby Lye, Solveig’s sister, Marilynn, and Solveig’s husband, John. The hill is marked with a large cross which can be seen from the interstate. Justin Lye made the cross, and Marta carted it up the hill, and her husband Rod set it in concrete. Solveig’s desire was that the cross be lighted and her daughters are making plans to get this request fulfilled. Soon the cross that marks this special place will be visible at night also. Please take the next few moments to think of Solveig and perhaps say a last good bye as we listen to the song “Amazing Grace.” Song: “Amazing Grace” Celebrant: If you know of anyone who could not be here today for Solveig Hess’ life tribute service, you might tell them that the text of today’s eulogy and the video tribute can be found on the Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home website to read and view. Thank you all for being here to share this important time. That concludes this life tribute service for Solveig Hess.

Solveig Hess

January 21, 1929 - January 9, 2008

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Solveig Hess

January 21, 1929 - January 9, 2008

What We Do

Flowers & Gifts

Plan Ahead

About Us

Resources

Obituaries

Grief & Healing

Contact Information

365 Days of Grief Support