Cloudy, 32° F
(July 13, 1951- Dec. 23, 2017)
Ted Martin, 66, passed away Dec. 23, 2017, at St. Vincent hospital in Billings, after succumbing to a long battle of pneumonia while recovering from a heart attack.
Ted was born in Powell July 13, 1951, to Ruby M. Davis (Martin-Henson) and Theodore (Tony) Roosevelt Martin. He started attending school in Lovell, and finished his education in Manderson. After his father passed and his mother remarried, the family moved to Hyattville.
Shortly after Ted’s little sister was born, and her father passed, the family moved to Basin briefly, before returning to Lovell. Ted spent roughly the next 16 years in the Lovell-Cody-Yellowstone area where he held a variety of jobs. Ted was a hard worker and started working at a young age. He had an eye for beauty and balance which lead him to spending most of his work history as a groundskeeper and gardener for others. Ted held a variety of jobs including gardening, hospitality-resort staffing (Pahaska Tepee), sheep herding, hired ranch hand and grounds keeping before moving to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in the last years of the ’80s.
Upon returning to Wyoming in the mid ’90s he settled in Powell, and resumed his groundskeeper role as he began working for Greg Anderson. Powell is where he took a more active role in emulating his lord and savior; Jesus Christ, and being a part of the community. He really enjoyed living in the Powell community where he soon met his future wife Patty Petersen. Their union was short as she passed away in the spring of ’05. In ’08 he moved south of Basin to the Wyoming Retirement Center (WRC) where he truly found a new lease on life: loved by everyone including staff and residents, he became very popular and quite the socialite. Ted became resident council president many times over at the WRC, knew and greeted everyone by name and participated in many of the fun activities.
He loved nature, its animals and being outdoors. He had a green thumb and an eye for beauty and balance. Throughout his life he had a knack for recognizing everyone with the slightest of glances because others were important to him and he valued telling you who he knew in life. Ted’s interests and hobbies included a variety of things; fishing, hunting, playing cards, board games, gardening, crocheting, collecting figurines, solving puzzles, listening to music, meeting new people and entertaining everyone! He always had a smile, a love of music and a humorous line. He ate candy by the handful and loved sweets (often getting two desserts before eating his meal), enjoyed bowling, visiting with others, social activities, playing bingo with anyone who wouldn’t win over him and watching The Weather Channel non-stop. He probably should have been a meteorologist.
Ted loved all the staff and residents at both WRC, and Bonnie Blue Jacket nursing home (where he moved to in the last three years) and more importantly they loved and embraced him! Being one of the youngest residents, he was spoiled in so many ways. His favorite activities were bowling, hot dice, and BINGO! He was loving and very competitive. BBJ is where he met his fiancée Fern Williams, and planned to be married Christmas Day of 2017.
Ted had a Jesus-like love of this world; looked at it through the eyes of a child and brightened the days of everyone he met with the most kind, keen and highly developed quick and witty sense of humor matched by no other!
Ted would like to be remembered as a “darn good friend to everyone!”
Ted is survived by his sister Peg Henson of Pierre, South Dakota; his first cousins; Jacky Davis of Quincy, California; Sylvia Bostwick and sons of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho; Bill (Jan) Hopster and family of Anchorage, Alaska; Ed Hopster (Rochelle) and family of Byron; special friends Greg Anderson (Powell); John and Bonnie Nation and family (Lovell); fiancée Fern Williams (Greybull); Bill Clark (Basin); Lee Snyder (Greybull); Ron Denniston and family (Manderson); Bonnie Blue Jacket and WRC staff and residents; and many, many more. He touched so many lives.
He was preceded in death by his sister Dora Dee Martin (stillbirth), his mother Ruby Davis-Martin-Henson; father Theodore Roosevelt Martin; Alton (Bill) L. Henson; wife Patty Peterson; grandparents; Mildred and Arne Martin (Midland, South Dakota); Delila J. Mooney-Boxrud and Julius Bernard Boxrud (Lovell); George Clinton Davis (Wheeling, West Virginia); Lucille Hopster (aunt); Jack Davis (uncle), and various aunts and uncles on the Martin family side.
Funeral Services were held Saturday, Dec. 30, 2017 at the LDS church South of Greybull. Graveside burial will take place Jan 4, 2018, at Hyattville cemetery in Hyattville. All are welcomed.
Memorial donations are being accepted at Bank of Greybull in Ted’s name.
Condolences, pictures, an electronic obituary, virtual cards and memories can be submitted and seen virtually at www.atwoodfamilyfh.com/obituary/theodore-ted-martin or sent directly to the family.
