Saturday, January 30, 2021
Marlys Yvonne Paugh passed away Jan. 26, 2021, at the Villa in Lewistown, Montana, due to complications from COVID-19.
Marlys was born on Oct. 9, 1929, to Ralph (Jack) and Marie Tollefson Ishmael in Bismarck, North Dakota. At the age of 5, during the Dust Bowl and Depression, the Ishmael family moved, with their belongings in the back of a rowboat towed by the family car. She remembers stopping on the way for abundant fishing at Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone Park that launched a lifelong passion for angling using hooks and worms. When they reached farmland with plenty of water, they began raising crops and livestock near Ronan. She became an expert on many things, including names of all the wildflowers, birds, and wild berries. If anyone needed help with gardening, canning, baking, preserving, Marlys was the ideal resource.