Butch Eugene Hestekin

Butch Eugene Hestekin, 65, of Vaughn, passed away on August 2, 2019 of natural causes. A Funeral Service will be held this Tuesday, August 13 at 10:00 a.m. in the Rose Room Chapel at Croxford Funeral Home with Burial to follow at Manchester Cemetery.

Butch was born May 11, 1954 in Coeur d’Alene, ID to parents Lee and Faith Hestekin who owned the CDA Livestock Yards up to the year 1965. The youngest of three children, Butch grew up riding ponies and trying to help his dad sort cattle. In 1965, they moved to Kalispell and built the Kalispell Livestock Yards. Later, in 1969, they moved to Great Falls where butch attended CM Russell Highschool until graduating in 1973. While leasing the stockyards in Great Falls (where the old K-Mart once was), Butch loved to load cattle on the railroad cars when it ran thru town. They had a bucking chute at the stockyards where Butch and his friends would spend most their time getting on horses and bulls. Butch rode bulls for five years until he got tired of getting busted up and then switched to riding saddle bronc for another ten years. Just out of high school, Butch spent four years working for different ranches in Cascade and Augusta.

Butch loved ranching and the outdoors but thought he would try something different for a while. He got a job with Chen-Northern in Great Falls where he spent the next ten years drilling for Foundation Investigation. There was a lot of traveling in that job and Butch wanted to stay closer to home so he could help his Family at the stockyards and feedlot in Vaughn so he got a job working for the Montana Department of Transportation. He enjoyed plowing roads in the winter and striping roads in the summer.  He later received a promotion to striping foreman.  Butch worked with good people and made a lot of good friends while being there for 25 years.

Butch would always go out after work on the weekends to help the family at Vaughn or to the stockyards in Manchester.  After he retired from the State he spent most of his time with his dad helping take care of the cattle and the feedlot.

Butch was looking forward to retirement so he could enjoy more time spent fishing, golfing, hunting or just being outdoors. And with his furry companion Bella at his side, he did just that until his untimely passing.

Butch was preceded in death by his parents, Lee and Faith Hestekin; brother, Randy Hestekin; and sister, Sandy Chrisman. 

He is survived by Levi Rabel, Dusty Chrisman, and Hunter Hestekin.

In lieu of flowers, Butch would rather you make a donation to one of his favorite charities:  Shriners Hospitals for Children, c/o Donor Relations, 2900 N. Rocky Point Drive, Tampa, FL 33607 or to                  St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN, 38105

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