Mary Sue Montgomery, 63, died January 14, 2023, at her home in Bismarck after a long battle with cancer.

Known as Sue by family and friends, she was born in Carrington, ND, on July 11, 1959, to Robert and Carol Montgomery, who farmed and ranched for many years west of Carrington. Sue graduated from Carrington High School in 1977, and she remained in Carrington for several years after high school to continue farming.

Sue loved many things about life in the country—time outside, anything and everything related to gardening and growing things, and time spent caring for and working with animals. In the many photographs from Sue’s childhood, she is riding horses, leading horses, playing with dogs, playing with cats, or cuddling armfuls of kittens. She would tell funny stories about her efforts to make up to wild farm cats and the many scratches that resulted.

Sue was especially connected to horses and to dogs, both of which were in abundance in her life. Sue was a natural with horses, and she was a patient teacher of her younger siblings and friends who wanted to spend time riding during long summer days in the country. She shared lots of memories of favorite horses—Dusty, Ginger, Honda, Racer, George, and others—and leisurely evening rides down dirt-packed prairie roads, through still-golden cut hay fields, or to her grandparents’ farm nearby. And there was the occasional longer ride to places like Dover Dam, which always seemed like special adventures in the company of friends and family.

Sue lived and worked in Carrington and the surrounding area in her young adulthood, and she also lived in Grand Forks, Minot, and Bismarck/Mandan while working in retail and light-industrial jobs. She found Bismarck/Mandan to be an especially good fit. She enjoyed her friends there, and she was able to get multiple community-garden plots near her home in Mandan. With her gardening, Sue wasn’t fixated on the bounty of harvests but more so on the pleasure and skill of growing and tending plants and keeping them thriving amidst difficult conditions. Gardening—and even planning for gardens–for Sue was joy throughout her life.

Sue had been living in Bismarck/Mandan for nearly two decades when she received a cancer diagnosis. Sue endured two years of grueling treatments to slow the progression, and she was especially courageous to undertake non-stop medical appointments during the isolation of the pandemic and the sudden and devastating loss of her beloved brother Lee in the fall of 2021. After an especially difficult series of health setbacks in the late fall, Sue chose hospice care in November of 2022.

Her family and friends will remember Sue’s quick warm smile, her generous nature and willingness to help, her love of gardening and compassion for animals, her courage in the face of illness, her red hair and fair complexion that required hats and long sleeves in the North Dakota summer sun, her love of German’s Chocolate Cake for her birthdays, and her pleasure in playing bingo and spending time out with friends.

Sue is survived by sisters Ann Montgomery (Flagstaff, AZ) and Jennifer Montgomery (Frank Cummings; Salisbury, NH), brother Ron Montgomery (Fargo), niece Brooke (Craig) Roth (Los Angeles, CA), and grandnephews Hudson and Becker. Sue was preceded in death by her mother Carol and father Robert; brothers Richard, Jim, Scott, and Lee; sister Kay; and grandparents Lewis and Gerda Mills and David and Ardell Montgomery.

 

 

Sue’s Visitation will be Wednesday, from 11:30AM-12:30PM at Evans Funeral Home, Carrington.

A Private Graveside Service will be at the Carrington Cemetery.