On Tuesday, October 29, 2024, we said goodbye to our mother, stepmother, grandmother, and good friend, Berta Mae Ranieri, 92, of Great Falls. Berta (Berti) was born on March 12,1932 at home to John and Sophie Stuker by Zurich, MT. She was the youngest of three brothers, Joseph, John, and Jake, and one sister, Ruth. She attended several different schools and when she was sixteen, she stayed at St Thomas orphanage for three months before she went to live with her foster parents, Dr. Arnold and Evelyn Ritt, and graduated from Great Falls High School in 1950.
She worked as a nurses’ aide at the Columbus Hospital before marrying John Rubens on October 1, 1950, and lived on the farm north of Great Falls in the Knees area for 32 years. They had five children together. She was an avid gardener, cook and seamstress so we never went without food and clothes! She also helped with the farm work and taking care of the animals. She enjoyed being on a bowling league and wrote many poems and stories. They divorced in 1982 and then she married Richard (Dick) Robinson in 1982. They moved many times in their 29 years together and each time Berti loved to re-landscape the yards.
After Dick passed away in 2011, Mom bought a house in Great Falls. She loved music and dancing and that is how she met her third husband, Jim Ranieri. They were married March 7, 2013 and enjoyed ten years together. He played in a band and she loved to sing along. When their health began to fail, they both moved into the Golden Eagle Plaza. Jim died April 9, 2023.
Berta loved the stars in a midnight sky, the whisper of a breeze passing by, a flight of geese in a stormy sky; she was a child of the shadows, prairie, desert and mountains, a poet and a dreamer; she ran with the wind, she loved all animals and they returned the same; she left her children without her name.
Survivors: (Children) Terry (Bob) Sheppard – Ovando, MT Audrey (Joel) Rouns – Brady, MT Kevin (Connie) Rubens – Great Falls, MT Claire Rubens – Ethridge, MT April Rubens – Tooele, Utah Ruth Brekke (sister) Orlando, Florida Grandchildren: Ryan Sheppard, Lacie (Eric) Vermulm, Clint Rouns, Zach (Kelsey) Rubens, Nicole Rubens, Kanoa (MacKenzie) Rubens, Thomas Walker, and Rye Allman. Seven great grandchildren.
To read the complete obituary and share condolences, click here to visit the Croxford Funeral Home website.
