Beverly Earlene Heckman (Gundlach)

Beverly was born in Ekalaka on August 23, 1931. She was the 8th child of 14 children to George and Frances (Garcia) Gundlach. Her early years were spent near Opechee Park and later her family moved down the road to the old Jones' Place. Beverly enjoyed her growing up with her large family of brothers and sisters. They had many adventures.

When Beverly was 4 years old, she would sneak off to country school with her brothers and sisters. After a few too many trips by her mom, the teacher told her, "you might as well let her stay, because she is doing all the work anyway." That began her school career. She graduated high school at 16 and went onto Billings College to become a teacher. She told us many stories about her time there living with her sisters Barbara and Shirley going to college those two years. She taught country school at a few schools in Carter County. One time she was snowed in for a few weeks and they had an airplane drop off some mail and groceries to her.

Beverly met her future husband Bud Heckman at a country school dance outside of Ekalaka. At that time Bud was working with a custom harvest crew from Nebraska that was in the area. August 7, 1954 they were married. Beverly and Bud had 4 children: Mitzi, Rocky, Shad and Darwin. In the early years Beverly continued to teach country school and her folks helped take care of Mitzi, Rocky and Shad. Bud got busy building houses and eventually needed Beverly's help to get things done. Darwin was born and the family was complete. In addition to all the contracting work, Bud's love for hunting got him started as a hunting guide in Eastern Montana. One of their first clients was Fred and Alyce Banister, who became lifelong friends. Bud's love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors led them to invest in a cabin in Benchmark (outside of Augusta, MT) with their friends Ernie and Grace Funk. They started spending a month in the summers out there. In the summer of 1971, their lives changed dramatically, when their house in Ekalaka burned down while they were in Benchmark. The family decided to have a vote, whether to go back to Ekalaka or stay in Augusta; Beverly and Mitzi were voted out so Augusta became home.

The Bruckert Resort came up for sale in 1969. They bought into the ranch with Beverly's brother Leland Gundlach. After the purchase of the place, there was a flood in the spring of 1975. With a lot of cleanup and hard work, Benchmark Wilderness Ranch was up and running with a lodge and rental cabins, in addition to back country summer trips, fishing and hunting camps.

Beverly was one of the hardest working people you might ever meet. She was physically strong. She carried many a concrete block helping Bud build houses. She packed out plenty of elk for hunters on mules and walked in and out on foot during her 50's. She kept the all the cabins clean as a whistle and still was able to cook great meals for the large hunting crews and entertain the guests. They met many great people during their years at Benchmark and many clients became lifelong friends. Don and Delores Bloom, Jerry Fox, Tom and Sue Avery, The Maynard Family, Matt Martinez Family, Marty Malin, Tom Stafford, Norma Balla, and many others. In addition to her close relationships with her brothers and sisters she enjoyed the company of Betty and Muzzy Lencioni until their passing.

Beverly and Bud molded several young boys into men. The abundance of work, stock, and clients was the perfect environment for that! Rusty Daniels and Brad Varland were like extra brothers to the rest of the Heckman kids.

Bud and Beverly had many memorable employees throughout the years Including Butch Kneifer, Charlie Anderson, Jimmy Lee, Joe Skovron, Scott and Jeff Weiss Steve Winslow, Steve White, Dan and Barb Long, Mary and Bob Herman, Karen Fusaro, Lorell Jenkins, to name a few.

Beverly was a fun Mom and Grandma. She was even able to make "work" fun. She was artistic and creative and would never acknowledge it! She made the grandkids "real" horses out of saw horses and any animal we wanted with pancake batter. We will never forget the "monkey" and "clown" faces and the special personalities that went with them. Her quick wit and smartass ways kept us all on our toes.

Our family is very thankful for the people of the Augusta community who looked out for Beverly on her "walkabouts" during her last years in town. There are too many of you to list. She spent her last year in Helena at an assisted living facility until her death November 2, 2020.

She is preceded in death by her husband Bud, son Rocky Heckman, granddaughter Tawnee Jo Heckman. Her parents, sisters: Mavis Muzzioli, Betty Evans, Gloria Heggen, Virginia "Tiny" Brown, Barbara Fisher Holm, brothers: Harold, Leland, & George Gundlach, and several nieces and nephews.

Beverly is survived by her sisters Shirley Meyer of Miles City and Darlene Gundlach of Beach, ND; brothers Jack Gundlach of Chiloquin, OR, Don (Kay) Gundlach and Doug Gundlach of Miles City. Her children Mitzi (Short) Stephens of Augusta, Shad Heckman of Sun River, and Darwin (Shellie) Heckman of Fairfield and Daughter-in-Law Lorell Heckman of Apache Junction, Arizona. Her grandchildren and great children: Amberly and Tyler Stephens of Augusta; Amanda (Jake) Wolfe of Deer Park, WA and their children Ryder, Dally, Hazen, Reina, Prairie, Baylee, Weston, Rosin, & Sorrel; Colter Heckman of Choteau, Hanna (Sterling) Crawley of Huntsville, TX; Brittany (Michael) Gulick and their children Kylie, Jayce and baby of Fairfield; Shayla Heckman of Farmington, Arkansas; Taylor (Abby) Heckman of Helena; Hunter Heckman of Sun River; Josh Slanger of Helena; Trevor McGurran (Tana) and their children Reese, Keelan, Brynn,& Mac; Bridger, Cade, and Walker Heckman of Fairfield. And several nieces and nephews.

Services will be held in Augusta and Ekalaka at a later date this coming spring/summer.