Friends bid farewell to Rhonda McClure as she returns to Wisconsin after 30 years in Lincoln

Dozens came to a party for Rhonda McClure last Wednesday to wish her well on her move back to Wisconsin after 40 years in Montana, most of those spent here in Lincoln with her husband Bob.

Rhonda first came to Montana in 1980, when she was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls. Although she'd won a four-year scholarship to college in Wisconsin, Rhonda chose instead to enlist. Her parents wouldn't sign for her, so she waited until she turned 18 the summer after high school graduation and went in with delayed enlistment, which allowed her to work for her dad for another year.

"Before my dad married my mom, he worked at a big ranch in Beulah, Wyo.," said Rhonda. "My dad said, 'If you ever get the chance to go out west, go west.' So, I put in for Montana and Wyoming, and I got Malmstrom Air Force Base." She later learned her maternal grandfather and his brother helped build the original courthouse in Libby, giving her ties to Montana on both sides of the family.

In the Air Force, Rhonda worked in civil engineering and entomology. "When I was in the military, there was a group of us that I worked with in civil engineering, and the first place we came camping was up Sucker Creek. It was the first time I camped in the snow. In 1980, I was already in Lincoln, and I didn't know I would be coming back here like this," said Rhonda."God has laid everything out for me. I'm so thankful."

She left the Air Force as a sergeant after four years, and after a short return home, came back out to Great Falls.

In 1989, Bob McClure came in for a six-week outpatient program at the Pain Rehabilitation Clinic in Great Falls where Rhonda worked. When he returned for physical therapy after the program, he asked her out for lunch.

"We met in May, and we married in November. We were married over 30 years. It was quick, but it was the right thing," she said.

Rhonda said Bob didn't want to move to Great Falls after they got together, so they moved to Lincoln. "He grew up here. His mom and dad had the McClure Texaco and that's where Bob worked," she said.

When she and Bob were first living in Lincoln, Rhonda worked as administrative float for Lewis & Clark County. "I went to all the departments in the County whenever they were short staffed or if they had a special project to work on, so I got to meet people in the treasurer's office and licensing and administration and voting and the fairgrounds. The last stint I did was at the county attorney's office, and I really liked it there," she said. "They wanted someone to be the public administrator to help Leo Gallagher with estates. That was probably the absolutely best job I've ever, ever had."

About five years ago, a position opened at the Parker Medical Center in Lincoln. Bob had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2010 and by 2015 her husband's health started failing.

"When that opening came at the clinic, I wanted to be home," Rhonda said. She worked as front desk staff at Parker for the next five years. Her last day was Friday, June 19.

"The opportunity this afforded me to meet the people in the community and know their families, it's been absolutely wonderful. I'm going to miss that. I really will," said Rhonda.

Bob died March 10 this year.

"He was just straight as an arrow always. And I have been, too, that's the way I was raised. Maybe that's why we clicked so quick, because we were so much alike. That's probably why I miss him so much, too. We just liked doing the simple things together," Rhonda said.

"Our best days were when we were out getting firewood. We loved going out in the woods and we'd pack a lunch. We'd go in the morning and finish up before it got too hot and then have our lunch and sit for a while and just enjoy it," she said.

"It's a privilege to have been a part of this, a privilege to have worked out at the clinic, the people that I've worked with and worked for, how much this place means to me. I am so thankful, so thankful, for every opportunity afforded me out here. To say it's an easy thing to move back, it's not. What makes it easy is that my family is there," Rhonda said. "If I didn't have them, I'd be staying. But we have remained close all these years. Mom and Dad are just stoked. Not many people can go home to their whole family like I can after 40 years and leave with the good memories I have."

Rhonda's brother Ray has organized a fish fry for her return. "They went fishing and they caught a passel of blue gills. And nobody fixes it like my brother Ray."

She also has aunts and uncles, and more than 30 nieces and nephews, all nearby in Wisconsin. She and her sister have plans to kayak a route between the Apostle Islands this summer.

Rhonda says there's another thing in Wisconsin the you don't get as much of in Montana. "In Wisconsin, we love to polka. Bob was a really good dancer, and he'd always get mad at me, because he'd be like, 'Let me lead!' But I couldn't get him to polka," she said with a laugh.