Cooking in the West

One of Big Timber, Montana's most renowned residents, Gwen Petersen, closed the gate just 5 days before her 94th birthday last week. I am so thankful that my "Ode to Coveralls" poem that referenced her ran before she passed, and her beloved friend, Elaine Allestad, took it to her bedside so her sidekick in poetry and life, Sandy Sallee, could read it to her. Gwen was a great writer of the western lifestyle and a truly one of a kind character who will be sorely missed, but she will live on through her rhymes and rhetoric. The following obituary was shared by Sandy Sallee.

Gwen Petersen

February 21, 1928 - February 16, 2022

Gwen Petersen was well known around Montana and the West. She was an accomplished poet, author, and editor of dozens of books and articles, creator of the first Montana Cowboy Poetry Gathering in 1986, playwright, perpetrator of the Toot, Hoot and Snoot show, illustrator, regular contributor to “Range Magazine” and “The Fencepost” agricultural publications, comedic character, and beloved friend.

Gwen Petersen was born Gwendolyn Alice Norton, a lovely British girl, in Decatur, Illinois February 21, 1928. Her parents were Joseph Ingram Lyle Norton, and Mildred Mills Norton. She had four siblings: Dorothy (Jean), Tom, Harry, and Janet; she and her younger brother Tom would keep in close contact her entire life.

Gwen always loved the idea of ranching, and boarded the train to Montana as a young woman. When she arrived in Livingston, she knew she was home. She worked there as a telephone operator, and then went on to graduate as an occupational therapist at college in Puget Sound. Moving back to Montana, she worked with the patients at Warm Springs and wrote plays for them.

Gwen came to Big Timber and met Martin Petersen, a local ranch hand. She said it was love at first sight – on his part! They were married in 1970. Gwen was always joking and making people laugh. She and Martin raised pigs, sheep, cattle, dogs, and cats. Gwen loved her horses, and rode in the Montana Cattle Drive. After Martin died, she stayed in her country home with her cats, dog Bailout, and miniature horses. Gwen thrived on writing and producing, and her first book “The Ranch Women’s Manual,” copyrighted 1976, has been reprinted several times. From “The Greenhorn’s Guide to the Woolly West,” to “Everything I Know about Life I Learned from my Horse,” to “How to Shovel Manure,” Gwen has been the leading voice on life lessons for country women. She is known for her hilarious viewpoints, and was featured in the very first National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko Nevada, followed by an appearance on Johnny Carson’s "Tonight Show".

Gwen was always a force of nature. She said it wasn’t that she was a leader, it's just that you can’t stop her! She enjoyed hilarious fiascos, and was always a dauntless advocate of Women of the West. Gwen loved horses and her Cowgal Pals, and celebrated the trials and tribulations of living in Montana. Though she spent the last couple years at Pioneer Medical Center in Big Timber, her mind was always working, and she wrote limericks for the nurses every day. Gwen often said, “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” Her last book was going to be “Closing the Gate.”