If you are reading this, as the song goes, I'm already gone. But gone with no regrets. I've had a great life. I was born in Sidney, Mont., to Marilyn Tanglen and Harry A. Sherman. When I was three, my father was killed in a plane crash. My mother moved to Terry and met a wonderful man, Leigh Sherman (no relation), and he was a great father and mentor. I wish I would have told him more often. He adopted me and the no name change confused the judge. In 1956, they had my sister Nancy .

I loved roaming the hills north of Terry, sure I would find and catch a wild horse. I would come home with pockets full of agates and fossils, but no horses. My cousin Bob Brix and I would explore Crane Creek all the way to Gartside Dam when we got together at Crane. Later when we moved to Greybull, Wyo., I was lucky enough to get a job at Hap and Jake Crane's ranch and outfitters in the Paintrock above Hyattville, working with the horses and learning to cook on an old wood-burning stove. Best of all was lots of free time to fish the creeks and just ride the trails. I loved going into Lake Solitude. I worked for a couple other outfitters after Hap passed, then moved on to college at NWCC, Eastern, and Tempe, Ariz.

I came to Red Lodge in 1967 for a summer theater and it became "home." I moved on but always returned to visit or live for a while. My absence was because I had found what I really loved, horse racing. I worked as a groom for a few good trainers and followed my boyfriend with our horses to Montana, Canada, Nebraska and Idaho. Some summers we just stayed at Playfair in Spokane and raced the summer, moving on to Yakima for the winter. My favorite job was working for a horse vet at the old Longacres in Renton. I cried every night when I had to give it up, but couldn't turn down a job with the Post Office.

In 1984 I met Fred Axton and we were married in 1987. He passed away in 2004. Life with Fred was an adventure every day. He was a musician and an entertainer. He told outrageous jokes and stories constantly. He loved to make people laugh. His work took us to many fun places, including the Washington coast. It was the best twenty years of my life. We moved from Yakima to Red Lodge in 2000.

So Fred was there waiting for me "At the Gates." We stopped by The Pearly Gate Tavern and had a mug of "Mead" with Larry Marshall and Eddie Weast, and then went dancing with old friends Pat and Bill Mitchell. Now we are on the way to see all the relatives and friends. Maybe I can finally figure out G-G-G grandfather and a couple others that have put me into a brick wall on my genealogy hobby (obsession).

I am the last of my immediate family, but survived by aunt Joanne Foss and Uncle Frank Sherman, both south of Brockton, Mont., also sisters-in-law, Ella (Rocky) Patrick and Martha Axton, of Yakima, Wash., and niece Debra Brown (Ella), of Billings.

I want my Red Lodge friends to know how much I love them and appreciate all the help they have given me. Though I wanted to move "downstream" to a warmer climate, I couldn't bear to leave such good friends. They could never be replaced. They are warmth against the snow and cold.

I also want to thank old friend Lyle Magnuson for giving me a racehorse he wanted to cull out of his too-big stable. It changed my life, sending me back to the race track and giving me something to do. And thank you Beartooth Ranch for giving him wonderful care, Ralph Hughes and Katie Bitterman for the love and carrots you gave him when I couldn't be there.

Funeral services for Sue will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 1, at Smith-Olcott Funeral Chapel in Red Lodge.

Burial will follow in the Red Lodge Cemetery.