Dale R. Bagnell

-Dale R. Bagnell, passed away peacefully at his home on Friday. Jan. 30th, after a long battle with Parkinson 's disease. His wife Jo and daughter Kim were by his side. He was 83 years old. Dale's family gives many thanks to Summit Independent Living, Partners in Home Care and the V.A. for all of their assistance over these past few years.
Dale was born on the family farm in Sanger, ND on New Year's Day in 1932, it was 40 below and he weighed 10 lbs. 12 oz. He loved growing up in North Dakota with his brother Lyle and sister Marlene. He said he and his brother did the work of grown men over the years, but still had plenty of fun. They drove a horse and buggy to school, and his love of horse racing started then, as he raced the local train every morning. This ended when his parents took the rig to town, and the horse heard the train whistle and they had a runaway. Another trip to the woodshed. After selling the farm the family moved to Center, where Dale graduated High School. He loved playing basketball and when they had a decent team, they wound up going to a tournament and playing Bismarck. They lost 104 to 7, Dale was high point player with 3. He had two years of college, one at Dickinson and one at Fargo. He got to student teach at a country school for one semester and had 8 students, who he said learned more about pheasant hunting than math. When his brother Lyle was drafted into the army, Dale joined the Navy. His first ship was the air craft carrier USS Leyte. Over the first few weeks, he noticed the same group of guys always first in the chow line, and found out they were barbers. So before getting his first assignment, he told his C.O. he was a barber. Actually his only experience was clipping cows' udders for his dad. So he learned to cut hair under licensed barbers, who caught on to him right away, but liked his nerve. He spent three years on the Leyte with a crew of about 3, 500. The last year spent on the USS Valcour which was a sea plane tender and had about 90 men. He saw the world except for the Orient. The Valcour sailed into Cannes, France and he said Ali Khan's yacht was bigger than his ship. While the Leyte was anchored in Boston, he met and married Josephine Donegan, they were married 60 years. After his discharge he, Jo and new baby Kim settled in Montana where most of his family now lived. Dale's experience of four years cutting hair now enabled him to skip barbers school and just pass a test. He then bought a shop next to old H.O. Bell Ford Co. and called it The Stag. He bought another shop with his buddy Denny Baldry and they named it the Black Bear. As successful as he was at barbering, Dale was an outdoorsman at heart. He loved big game hunting, anything to do with horses and rodeos. He performed in bare back, dogging, roping and his favorite, bull riding. When he decided to buy his first race horse, he was greatly encouraged by Jo who hoped he wouldn't have time for bulls. He became successful racing on the weekends and finally sold his half of the shop to Denny and became a public race horse trainer; which he did until he couldn't physically do it anymore. He bred and trained many wonderful horses. "See For Yourself", winner of 42 races was his favorite. He also trained horses for a lot of wonderful people.
Dale is survived by wife Jo daughter Kim and granddaughter Brandy Seal. Also sister Marlene of Mesa, AZ; sisters-in-law Mabel Bagnell of Spokane, WA and Babs Bagnell of Polson; and many cousins and he loved his many nephews and nieces. He was preceded in death by his brothers Lyle Bagnell and Darrell Scottie Bagnell.
Garden City Funeral Home handled the cremation. The family will have a celebration of Dale's life later on in the spring or summer. When Dale asked the racing officials at the last race meeting here in Missoula a few years ago for a pass to watch the race, they took his picture and presented him with a license that said, "Dale Bagnell – Legend"
Condolences and memories may be left for the family at www.missoulafuneralhomes.com

Read Dale Bagnell's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.