The Circle Banner - Anyone can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love the pairie

by Jan Ophus

Mary Kay Kountz started writing "BROCKWAY BRIEFS" in 1991. She writes about forty of these entertaining, interesting, gossipy columns each year. They're typically around 1,000 words long. So, over the course of thirty-three years she's submitted some 1,320 columns to the Circle Banner. That's 1,320,000 words! It's high time we Banner loyalists got to know this prairie chronicler a little better.

JO: Tell us about yourself, Mary Kay. Your parents and siblings, your own family.

MKK: I moved to Circle from Wibaux with my parents, Claydeen and Irene Berger, and six siblings in the Fall of 1968 when my dad became the depot agent in Circle. I'm the second eldest of seven children-Michael Berger, Clay Berger, Deanna Bockness Rittal, Patti Soares, Greg Berger, and Therese Iwaniak-whose names are probably recognizable since they appear in this column quite often whether they like it or not!

I first met my eventual husband, Brad, while working at his parents' farm, helping with household chores, during the summer of 1969. We started dating a couple of years later when I was a Senior. I graduated with the Class of 1971 and married Brad that September and moved to the ranch southeast of Brockway where Brad farmed and ranched with his father, Jack.

We raised our three daughters, Tina Phillips, Carey Schneider, and Kaylee Kleinsasser on the ranch where I still live. My days back then were filled with cooking, cleaning, running kids to their activities, cattle herd paperwork, helping move farm equipment, and occasionally getting roped into doing a chore that I had no knowledge about or experience doing, but did so after a quick five-minute pep talk and minimal instruction. Fortunately, there were no serious wrecks or injuries

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I enjoyed working with the cows and helped Brad more after the girls were older. We raised cattle and had an annual bull sale for over 30 years, most of them held at the ranch.

Both Brad and I were involved in our community-Brockway Commercial Club, the Dairy Day Rodeo, and 4H. After retirement in 2015, we enjoyed going to our six grandchildren's activities and sports events and traveling with friends and family. Brad passed away on July 29, 2021, following complications from an infection in his heart. Anyone who has lost a spouse knows the pain and the reality of losing your best friend and partner in life, but, nonetheless, life does go on.

My family is my main focus these days, and I try to go to as many of my granddaughters' (Greeley-14, Falynn-13, and Izzy-11) events as possible in Big Timber and in Circle. Granddaughter Ramsey (26) is the Lead Field Engineer for the Deepwater Conqueror, a deep-water drillship on contract with Chevron in the Gulf of Mexico, and lives in Texas. Rhett (22) is a student at Montana Tech in Butte studying construction management, and Flint (18) is a Senior in Glasgow.

I enjoy spending time with friends and family, hosting family get-togethers, cooking, reading, and some traveling. Congregatemeals in Brockway are a highlight for many of us Senior Citizens.

JO: When and why did you start writing "BROCKWAY BRIEFS"?

MKK: I had to do some research to find out when I started writing the column. Adeline Ross wrote "Bits from Brockway" for the Circle Banner for several years, and when Dennis and Adeline moved from this community a search was on for a replacement.

There was no one jumping to fill Adeline's shoes. It was suggested that the Brockway Homemakers Club and the Triangle Homemakers Club take turns gathering news and writing the column until the position was filled. This worked for a very short time. I was a member of the Triangle Club. The other ladies did take a turn or two but thought I should just go ahead and take the job.

I "officially" started writing 'BROCKWAY BRIEFS" in October of 1991. The news was typed on my typewriter and then taken to the Banner office, where it was retyped into a newspaper format. With the introduction of computers, I would save a file to a disc and then the disc was delivered to the office where it was put on their computer and then laid out. Today's technology has made it much easier to write the news, attach the file to an email, and get it to the editor for publication.

My mother, Irene Berger, was the editor of the Circle Banner in the early 70's, after being a typist for owner/publisher Aubrey Larson for a few years prior. I occasionally helped when her regular typist, Faye Good, was out of town or had other commitments. Back then all the articles were typed in columns. Correction strips were pasted over the sentences with mistakes. The editor organized the columns into page layouts and then all that was mailed to the printer.

When I first started writing for the Banner, I could submit my column Monday afternoon, and the paper was in the hands of the readers by Thursday or Friday at the latest.

JO: How many columns do you typically write each year?

MKK: Oh boy, probably around 40? Not really sure, but that's probably close. I took a break for a few months after Brad passed away. I try to write it weekly, but sometimes that doesn't happen because things come up that I need to prioritize or I'm out of town and didn't get the news written earlier. I have literally even forgotten to submit the column after writing it earlier in the week.

For the most part, I consider writing the column a service to the community to provide information about what's been happening, upcoming events and to let folks, especially those that don't live here, know what's been going on with some of the people from "back home." At times it seems like a gossip column, but it is what it is.

JO: Do you write about parts of McCone County other than the Brockway area?

MKK: I do write about things happening in Circle quite often-school events, sports, Town and Country Day. But mostly the people I write about or have news about are from Brockway or their families are connected to the Brockway community in some way. Years ago, there were several local news columns written, usually by homemakers club members. Friendship news, Vida news, Shade Creek news-all had correspondents.

JO: How do you gather the info you need for the column?

MKK: My job is easier when people call or email me their news because sometimes it's hard to contact people by phone. I feel that even as ordinary as some of this "news" is it is important for future generations to read about their families and about some of the things that were happening during that period of time.

Dale Bond and Charlie Moline were wonderful sources of knowledge about this community and would provide me with information and history when milestone anniversaries of the town or of the Dairy Day Rodeo were forthcoming. At one point, Charlie asked a trivia question every week about Brockway for a several weeks and people seemed to enjoy learning the history of this community and the surrounding communities.

JO: Maybe this is encouraging you to "talk out of school," but can you share with us the most interesting or the funniest tidbit you've gathered over the years?

MKK: Some of the most entertaining columns to me were about the things that happened to people they were willing to share, from having a skunk burn down a chicken coop, airplanes landing on country roads, raccoons making their way into homes through unlocked screen doors. I once enjoyed writing a column that had folks wondering (for a very short time) just what was going on. As for "talking out of school," most people don't mind seeing their names in the paper, but occasionally I am asked not to write about a particular incident.

All in all, writing "BROCKWAY BRIEFS" has been an interesting and for the most part rewarding undertaking. Typos, misspelled names, and maybe even a bit of embellishment, exaggeration, and political opinion are often detected. But most people, thankfully, don't get offended.

JO: Offense is the last thing loyal readers would think to take from "BROCKWAY BRIEFS," Mary Kay. Reading fun and gratitude is more like it. We look forward to your column every week. Thanks for giving it to us.