Julie K. Thorson
Julie K. Thorson passed from this earth on Thursday, June 24th. She was known by many close friends and family as “Julie from the Coulee”. She was born on December 13th, 1946, to Laurence “Ox” Thorson and Mary Shepherd in Harlowton, MT. She graduated from Harlowton High School; soon thereafter she met and married Bill Harman of Shepherd and had two sons, Monte and Shane.
Julie was a true, hardworking cowgirl-tough rancher that transformed the Galloway Creek Ranch into the beautiful homestead at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains that it is today.
The ranch that she purchased from her father, Ox’s Estate, was her most proud achievement. She worked endless years turning the dryland acreage into the successful and healthy rangeland that it is today. Through this hard work she even earned a spot on the 2009 Governor’s Range Tour for responsible and resourceful range management, one of the most prestigious awards for ranching and one of her proudest achievements.
Julie had many other hobbies besides ranching: she was a great hunter, amazing quilter, and raised an impressively huge vegetable garden on the ranch each year which she would preserve and can. Julie had many pastimes including cooking for her family, a favorite being fried chicken, along with the chicken’s feet and mashed potatoes and refrigerator pickles.
Upon retiring from ranching, Julie moved to Huntley to be closer to her sons and friends whom she loved dearly. She loved to spend her free time with friends at the Pryor Creek and Blue Cat Bar, and with family at her beautiful house or her son’s Monte and Rhonda’s restaurant, Ra Ra’s Pizzeria, enjoying car shows and a good drink. She is survived by her two sons Monte (Rhonda) Harman, their children Nick and Nolan; Shane (Stacy) Harman and their children Jessika, Shyanna, and Dalton.
As Julie always used to say, “Powder River, Let’er Buck!”
A memorial service will be held at Heights Family Funeral Home, 733 West Wicks Lane, Billings, Montana on Monday, July 12th at 10 am.
