Aleta Ann (Leta) Archdale Melbourne (Walking Star Woman) passed away on January 30, 2020 surrounded by family and friends at the Poplar Community Hospital in Poplar, Montana after a long illness.
Aleta was born on May 11, 1954 in Poplar to Violeta (Brown) and Frederick Archdale Sr. She grew up in Oswego, Montana and attended Frazer High School, graduating in May of 1972. She participated in basketball and excelled in track, running the 1200 and 3200 events. After graduation, she continued to help her parents on the family farm/ranch. She was a true cowgirl as she helped her brothers with haying, feeding the cows and horses, and calving. She even knew the basics and more when it came to mechanics. One summer she entered up to ride bareback in the Brockway Dairy Days rodeo. On top of this, she worked at the Glasgow Air bas for years up until it closed. She was a bartender at “Buck’s Bar” in Oswego for a few years and the Fort Peck Sr. Citizens feeding site in Frazer. She also worked at the Frazer Headstart as a cook.
She met Manuel (Manny) Melbourne in 1982, moving to Poplar later that year. Manny and Aleta married on February 13, 1987 and to this union Manny gained a son, Frederick “Boo” and Aleta gained a daughter, Michelle. On September 22, 1985, Monica Annette entered the world and Leta and Manny’s family was complete. Leta was a stay at home mom and her pastime was doing beadwork, her work is well known throughout Montana. She made many Championship event belt buckles for local rodeos, and complete regalia including the moccasins for many families. She beaded checkbook covers, her trademark was the porcupine quills that are in the center of these. When her eyes could not take the beading anymore, she started to babysit for many families at her home, a lot of these children, now grown, still remember her as their babysitter. Her and Manny raised one child, Gregory, until he was thirteen years old. She then went to work with Debra Bruner who started “Debbie’s Daycare” for several years. The past few years she received her “Food Handlers” certificate and she started to set up at the flea market that was held every Saturday, serving her famous “Biscuits/Gravy” and her traditional soups with frybread, a pop/ tea, with pineapple upside down cake. People would come from the west and east end of the reservations to enjoy this meal and to visit, majority of the time she would sell out of food after telling many stories of the good ol’ days. After 1:00 p.m., she would pack up and she and Manny would take the weekly ride across the reservation. This was ritual until the past few months.
Leta loved to visit everyone and share her knowledge of traditional ways. With her passing, a lot of this will be lost, for very few know of these ways. She loved to read, do crossword puzzles and cook. She enjoyed the Poplar Wild West Days rodeo and would have a cookout in her backyard for her family and friends. Aleta loved spending time and doing things with her grandchildren.
Preceding her in death are her parents Violeta and Fred Archdale Sr.; her son, Frederick “Boo” Archdale; brothers, Douglas “Dusty”, Fred Jr., Donald Wayne, and Kermit; Sisters, Darlene Johnson, and Sylvia Birdsbill.
Surviving her are her husband, Manny; daughters, her baby Monica, Yolanda, and Michelle; sister, Annette Linder; brother, Wallace “Beanzie”; nieces, Janie Rae, Christy, Sonja, Netta, Rosie, and Sonica; nephews, Anthony Archdale, Michael Birdsbill, and Frederick Archdale; numerous grandchildren; and adopted sisters, Monica Buckles, and Debra Bruner.
Extended family includes the Archdale family, the Flynn family, the Brown family, the Adams family, the Fourstar family, the Jackson family, the Wetsit family, the Grey family, and Leonard Smith and brothers. Sorry if we forgot to mention any family, it was not intentional.
A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, February 2, 2020 at the Clayton Stevenson Memorial Chapel in Wolf Point, Montana. Interment will follow at Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Frazer, Montana. Clayton Stevenson Memorial Chapel has been entrusted with the arrangements and condolences for the family can be left by using the form below.