John Que McClammy
John Q. McClammy age 90, of Poplar, MT, passed away at his residence on Wednesday, March 31, 2010.
This ol’ cowboy, known mainly as “Que” & sometimes as that ole’ Muleskinner, “saw everthin’, done everthin’ & went ever’where” and if legend is correct, all before he was in long pants.
John Que is a member of the Fort Peck Sioux and Assiniboine Tribes. John Que was born on January 5, 1920 and was raised in a house of men, raising cattle and horses and helping his Dad in the family businesses (one of which involved a secret room and a lot of copper tubing). John Que enjoyed leather tooling and hide tanning. John Q’s father, William “Bill” McClammy came to northeastern Montana along with his brothers by way of a cattle drive and met and married John’s mother, Phillippeana Knapp. As anyone who knew him would attest, John Que was quite a character. First and foremost, he was a cowboy and lived the “cowboy way”. He loved animals and spent his life breaking horses, raising pigs, mules, goats, chickens, dogs and cats and anything else that happened to wander into his yard, whether they wanted him to or not. John Que was a connoisseur of roadkill and if you were ever asked to dinner, you kept your manners and didn’t ask “what’s for dinner!” If you went out to his place, Mule Ranch, to see him, he might ask you if you needed some eggs, he’d disappear into the brush and come out with 3 or 4 eggs, you took’em, they may have been in the brush for months and may or may not have been chicken eggs but…you took’em. John once said that if he went past Wolf Point he’d probably get lost “out there in the world,” he then laughingly said, “I’d get lost crossing the bridge outside of Poplar.” John Que may have seemed like a craggly little old man, but he had the heart of a giant. Give him a few beers and he became a giant. Whenever his baby sister Dulcie came to visit, John Que knew he could get his way and he strutted around the house with a smug look on his face, thumbing his nose like a little boy at everyone, his brothers Jim and George had no control over him when “sis” was in town. John Que served his country proudly during World War II and received many honors, he joined the U.S. Army in 1939 – 1945 and served in the 161st Infantry Regiment. He received a bronze star during his service in the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre including Guadalcanal, Luzon, and Northern Solomon Islands. Because he was familiar with animals one of his duties was to drive the mule train with ammunition deep into the jungle. John once danced the jig on the Sheriff’s cowboy hat for jailing his brother’s & he told me “I ain’t got much use for the law, course the law ain’t got much use for me either.”
John Que was preceded in death by his father Bill, mother Phillippeana, brothers Daniel, William “Tolly”, James and George and sisters Kate and Mary.
John Que is survived by his brother, Willis McClammy of Tacoma, WA, his baby sister Dulcie Wolf (who loved to scold him) of Stone Lake, WI, his best friend and fellow cowboy, Woody Johnson, special great-nieces Tessy Gourneau & Krystal Wellman, his children John Wayne Smith, Deborah Ann Steltzer, Judith Kozak and Verne Thomas Smith and his very special grandchildren, O’Ryan, Dulcie, Chaz & Smith.
As Uncle Que wished, we are going to “stick’im in the ground” without much fanfare. Friends and family can visit one last time with John Que on Tuesday evening, April 6th, 2010 beginning at 6:00 pm at the Clayton Memorial Chapel in Poplar, MT. Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 10:00 am at the Poplar Cemetery.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.stevensonandsons.com. Clayton Stevenson Memorial Chapel has been entrusted with the arrangements.