Beatrice Helen Rasmussen

Beatrice Helen Rasmussen, passed away on June 28, 2023 in Billings, Montana.  She was born on June 15, 1936, in Crow Agency, Montana to Charles Edwin and Helen Sarah Pease Wolf.

Bea attended a country school on Soap Creek for primary, attended two years at Lodge Grass High School and graduated from a private Christian school in Bacone, Oklahoma in 1955.

In 1957, she married Keith Wagner.  They had 3 children; Robbin Jeffery, Charles Preston and Kristel Marie.  Bea and Keith operated the Wolf Ranch on Soap Creek and later separated and divorced in 1977. Bea married Phil Rasmussen in 1980.  Phil and Bea worked together on the farm on Owl Creek and raised cattle on Soap Creek with her son, Chuck.  Phil passed away in May of 2022.

She worked as a clerk at the Yellowtail Market in Fort Smith.  Bea later worked as a dental assistant for Dr. Downing in Hardin and then worked at IHS in Lodge Grass. Later she opened Indian Country Gift Shop in Lodge Grass.  Bea was the director of the Lodge Grass Senior Center until she retired in 2010. She was a member of the Crow Indian Baptist Church.

She was a talented artist. Bea painted, beaded, did ceramics and photography.  She studied wild birds, flowers and loved to garden.  She would give away as much squash as people would take. Bea had a beautiful singing voice, she performed in community theater in Hardin and traveled while in high school with the Bacone Choir.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her son Charles Wagner, her husband Phil Rasmussen, her sisters Gwen O’Brien and Mary Ruth Hammett, her brother Norman “Buz” Wolf, her sister-in-law, Mary Louise Wolf and brother-in-law, John Hammett.

Bea is survived by her children, Kristel (Bill) Blair and Robbin (Arlene) Wagner; her grandchildren and great grandchildren, William (Heather) Blair and their children Quint and Halle, Amanda Blair and Kyle Gardner and their daughter Beatrice, Jessica (Iann) Deahl and their children Erros and Seneca, Devin (Mabel) Wagner and their son Anson, Nicole (Tim) McNew and their children Keeley and Lexi, Brianna Wagner, Sara (Colt) Langenegger, her brother-in-law Jim O’Brien, and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

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