James Earl Maher

James "Jim" Earl Maher, 85, was born on November 5th, 1934, at Bozeman Deaconess. He passed away peacefully at home with family by his side, October 17th, 2020, in Livingston. Born to Earl W. Maher and Katherine M. (Zindler) Maher, both deceased. His sister, Helen Chandler survives him, and sisters, Donna Houghtaling, Linda Kraft have predeceased him. He married the love of his life, Leona Ivy (Miller) Maher, on September 5th, 1969, at Pine Creek Church in Livingston, Montana, spending 51 years together. His children also survive him: Ed (Stacey) Boucher, Ron (Natalie) Boucher, Kimberly (Jay) ONeill, Melonly (Dave) Busby, Dusty (Heidi) Maher, Jim (Teri) Cooper, Debby (Marc) Fergusson, Glen (Kathy) Cooper, Jackie (Mark) Gangstad; 34 grandkids, 30 great-grandkids, and 1 great-great grandchild. Jim was known for his laugh, love of gardening, kind heart, love for his kids and grandkids. He loved playing marbles and checkers with anybody he could sucker into it. He loved farming, mowing yards, and singing to his chickens. He had many hobbies that included wood working, gardening, fishing, drawing pictures, tinkering on the piano, playing Wii, singing karaoke, and playing scratch off lottery tickets. In his younger years, he loved ranching that included haying, to milking cows to rubbing pig bellies. He started out as a farmer, moved to logging at the Post Mill in Pray, MT. He later moved to Livingston and started a lawn care and snow removal business. Jim and his wife Lee took pride and joy in helping those in need and spent many years adding foster grandchildren to be part of the family. He retired at 83 years old from removing snow and mowing lawns. He would ask anybody he saw, from nurses, to doctors, to anybody he ran into if they would catch him some whitefish so he could smoke it. The non-drinking Jim told the doctors and nurses the cure to all was a shot of Jim Beam and would let out the laugh and smile we all loved ever so much.PLEASE NOTE LOCATION CHANGE. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, October 24th, 2020, at 1:00pm, hosted at the Franzen-Davis Funeral Home, burial will follow at Park View Memorial Gardens and then immediately followed by a reception held at the Livingston Christian Center, 1400 Mount Badly Drive, Livingston. Masks are welcomed! But not required.