Carmen Greenlee

Carmen Greenlee, 82, of Raynolds Pass, Montana, was received by our Lord on January 12, 2023.

Carmen Teresa Loera Greenlee was born in Hanford, California, June 22, 1940, to Cecil and Emily (Munoz) Loera, the youngest of five children. After Carmen graduated from high school in San Jose, CA, she moved to Sacramento, CA, for college where she married David Richer and had two children, Michelle (Richer) Stennett, Ketchum, Idaho and Scott Richer, Door County, Wisconsin. She remarried to James Greenlee and they lived in Wausau, Wisconsin for over 30 years before moving to their beloved Madison Valley in 1997 where they lived the remainder of their lives.

Those who knew Carmen universally agreed that she was beautiful and elegant, smart, well-read, stoic, and proud. She was strong, had unwavering opinions, and stood by her beliefs. She never forgot her roots. She was a caring mother, a loyal wife and friend, and a woman of deep faith. Carmen was an active parishioner of Our Lady of the Pines in West Yellowstone.

Carmen loved Montana, its people, the mountains, and nature. She found joy being surrounded by the beauty and wildlife of her Madison River home. Ever the storyteller, she was impressed by an oration given by a Montana Chieftain, “You have merely lost the woman. You still have the world in which she lived and which she so enjoyed. You still have its beauty and its loveliness and the blue skies to which she looked…The Great Spirit has only taken to him the woman. You lose only that. (He) leaves for you all the other things and gives to you forever, those memories of the woman.”

A celebration of life will take place in June. Donations in her name can be made to Our Lady of the Pines, P.O. Box 577, West Yellowstone, MT 59758.