Gladys K. Stenberg was born in Big Timber, Montana, on September 26, 1934, to parents Louis Krone and Nora Elgen Krone. She grew up on her parents’ ranch on the Yellowstone River east of Grey Cliff and attended all 8 grades at the one-room Kent School on Bridger Creek. She worked in the hay fields from a young age, driving derrick horses and teams to haul hay. She drove teams for the overshot and did a lot of hay raking and baling.

Gladys graduated from Sweet Grass Co. High School in 1952. She was a proud member of the famous Class of 1952 which had 52 graduates and had the motto of “Whoop – De – Do in 52”. That motto surfaced many times on t-shirts and banners for parades and get togethers. She treasured her dear classmates. During high school she was in the 4-H Club with lamb and sewing projects and earned trophies for her good marksmanship in the Rifle Club.

During the years of 1952 to 1957, she worked at Ryan Grocery Store in Billings, the Greycliff Store, City Food and Cole Drug.

Gladys became acquainted with Olav Stenberg while he was working on the Adams Ranch north of Big Timber and the American Chrome Mines in Nye. They shared many dances together before they married on January 20, 1957 at the Big Timber Lutheran Church. They traveled to Moi, Norway for their month-long wedding trip in the summer of that year. In the following years, they enjoyed several more trips back to Norway to visit family and friends and to attend several family weddings.

Gladys and Olav bought her mother’s ranch on the Yellowstone in 1958 and ranched there until a January ice jam and flood urged them to “move to higher ground”. They bought the ranch on the Boulder in 1966. Gladys loved the ranch life and worked hard side by side with Olav for 62 years and raised a great family. They enjoyed parties and going to dances in the community.

On August 7, 2019, Heaven gained a special Norwegian wife, mother and grandmother, who offered up her Norwegian meatballs, kumla and lefse to anyone who stopped by the ranch. The door was always open for friends and family to visit and the cookies and coffee were always handy. She loved to garden, feed the hummingbirds and always had flourishing violets in her window. Gladys was a member of the T-Bone Cowbells, Women of the Moose, American Legion Auxiliary, Sons of Norway and the Big Timber Lutheran Church.

She is survived by her husband, Olav and her children Lois Spencer (Steve, Brian and Lise), Esther Peterson (Joel) and Stuart Stenberg (Dava, Jacob and Tucker) and numerous nieces and nephews, including those living in Norway. She was preceded in death by her parents, Louis Krone and Nora Elgen Krone Omdal, her dear brother, Harold Krone, her baby brother and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.

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