George Needens

George Fred Needens was born June 29th, 1922, in Hardin, Montana, and died at April 16th, 2015 (age 92 years, 9 months, and 18 days) at the Missouri River Care & Rehabilitation Center in Great Falls, Montana after a progressive battle with dementia. The fifth of eight children born to Jacob Needens & Amalia "Molly" (Müller) Needens--both natives of Gnadentau, a German village in Samara, Russia--George was originally named "Georg Friedrich Niedens", after his mother's only brother, Georg Friedrich Müller, who never left Russia and who, along with nine other Uncles and Aunts on the Niedens and Müller sides of the family, and thousands of other relatives--met an early and tragic demise  when millions of the Volga Germans had their property confiscated and were exterminated through starvation, execution, or were exiled to regions where survival was next to impossible, if possible at all. George was just a baby--a toddler at most--when his parents moved to Sheridan County, Wyoming. He attended ranch schools in that community, through the 8th grade. He was confirmed at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Sheridan, Wyoming, in 1938. George was incredibly gifted at wood-carving. He carved horses and bulls that were amazingly lifelike. He developed this talent so well that he could have easily opened a shop, been very successful and widely known, but he chose to just give his carvings away and eventually lost interest. Always somewhat of a loner, while still a teenager, George took off on his own "riding the rails" and ended up losing two fingers. George couldn't and wouldn't hurt a fly and had a compassion for animals. When WW2 came along and he was drafted into the army, he went AWOL--I suppose because of his conviction against, and aversion to killing and violence of any kind, and because he was a very private person. He eventually turned himself in and was discharged. Other than a brief period when he worked picking fruit in California, and a short residency in Idaho, George spent most of his life herding sheep up in the mountains around Dillon, Montana, until retiring to a secluded trailer park a short distance out of Dillon. Never one to stay put in one place for too long, he left the trailer park to live in a camper trailer in a rented spot on Railroad Avenue. He was living at that location when his health declined to the point he could no longer care for himself. George was preceded in death by his parents, Jake & Molly Needens; three brothers, Walt, Bill, and Ed; and one sister, Elsie (Needens) Slusher. He is survived by two sisters, Hilda (Needens) Anderson of Sheridan, Wyoming, and Helen (Needens) Lind of Quincy, Washington; one brother, Ike Needens, also of Quincy, Washington. Three first cousins, Bill Nedens of Billings, Montana, Harry Nedens of Livingston, Montana and Lydia (Nedens) Stricker of Hardin, Montana, also survive, as well as numerous nieces and nephews scattered around the U. S. A graveside committal service will be at 2 p. m. Wednesday April 22, 2015 at the Mountain View Cemetery in Dillon, Montana.