Barbara Cripps
courtesy photo
Barbara Cripps
DIXON — Barbara Jean Cripps, 76, of Dixon, passed away on Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. She was born Nov. 21, 1942, in Great Falls to LeRoy and Jean Ellis.
She grew up in Lewistown, met and married Donald Blaine Cripps of Guilt Edge, the love of her life. They raised four beautiful daughters and lived all over Montana and Eugene, Oregon for a time. She loved to sew, kept her girls in style, painted wonderful pictures, and beaded beautiful earrings. She loved growing flowers, loved her cats and dogs, loved taking pictures, and loved Jesus as well as her church here in Dixon.
She was a loving best friend, a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was preceded in death by her husband, Don Cripps; her parents, LeRoy and Jean Ellis; and her grandson, Gabriel Forest Swanson.
She is survived by her four daughters and their families: Tammy and Mike Weaver of Ravalli, Christine Cripps of Big Fork, Ranay and Ken Turner of Worcester, Massachusetts, and Becky Shaver of Missoula; eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren; two brothers, David Ellis of Highland Village, Texas, and Jay Ellis of Las Vegas, Nevada; and a sister, Linda Ransford of Lander, Wyoming.
A memorial service will be held at the Dixon Senior Center on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 1 pm. Pastor Ben Westfaul will officiate. She will be cremated and taken up to the mountain ranch later in the summer.
