LeVon (Swede) Priny Schlenz passed away peacefully on November 19, 2025, in San Juan Capistrano, California, at the age of 90, with his devoted wife and daughter by his side.

Born at home on April 13, 1935, in the Charley Creek Community, LeVon was the beloved only child of Priny and Irene Schlenz. He spent nearly his entire life on the family farm, a place that shaped his character, his work ethic, and his deep love for the land. After attending Armstrong Elementary School and Sidney High School, he began farming alongside his father. In November 1958, he married his childhood sweetheart, Dolores (Dolly) Sheehan, beginning a lifelong partnership filled with love, resilience, and adventure. Together they adopted two children, Sherry and Randy, whom he cherished.

LeVon’s determination was unmatched. After losing his right arm in a farming accident in 1976, he refused to give up the life he loved. Therapists encouraged him to consider a new path, but he insisted, “once a farmer, always a farmer.” With grit and remarkable adaptability, he relearned every task—driving tractors and combines, working cattle, repairing equipment, waterskiing, fishing, bowling—using his left hand and a new prosthetic. He mastered it all with the same hearty gusto that defined his life.

In the winters, LeVon re-discovered a talent for woodworking, crafting chair-ladders, benches, whirligigs, and even a Santa’s sleigh. He loved raising Hereford cattle, and every “bum calf” earned the name Peanut. He named every cow in the pasture and faithfully recorded daily temperatures and small notes about life—“went to town,” “finished harvesting”—in his journal.

LeVon served his community as a board member of the Farmer’s Elevator in Brockton and as manager of the Charley Creek Baseball Team. He was also president of the Poplar and Wolf Point chapters of Walleye’s Unlimited, fitting for a man whose favorite catch was Walleye, with Northern Pike a close second. He loved snowmobiling and even entered the occasional race.

After retiring in 1999, he rented the farm and pastureland to his cousin Jim Carda and Jim’s sons, Brent and Kris, though he continued helping neighbors whenever needed. Retirement opened the door to new adventures: traveling each winter in a fifth-wheel RV to Laughlin, Nevada, and then to Newport Beach, California, to visit Sherry. He and Dolly enjoyed deep sea fishing, sightseeing, visiting cousins in Torrance and Escondido, CA, and doing handyman projects for his daughter. Some winters took them farther south in their RV to San Felipe, Mexico, where they stayed on the Gulf of California, savored fresh seafood and making new friendships.

Every spring, they returned to Montana, where LeVon tended a large garden—potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, green beans, onions, radishes—and joyfully shared his harvest with neighbors and cousins. Summers brought treasured trips to Rock Creek, Montana, where he and Dolly shared a cabin with his cousin Shari and her husband Wally Whitney (LeVon’s best friend). Days were spent fishing from their boats, and evenings ended with macadamia nut–crusted Walleye if luck was on their side.

LeVon’s love of travel took him fishing in Alaska, Washington, and Hawaii, and visiting family and friends across Minnesota, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Idaho, and exploring Nevada, Florida, the Bahama’s, Utah, Arizona, and Branson, Missouri. He is survived by his loving wife, Dolly; his daughter, Sherry; and many cousins who adored
him. He was preceded in death by his father, Priny Schlenz; his mother, Irene Schlenz; his son, Randy Schlenz; and several aunts and uncles.

LeVon will be remembered for his unwavering work ethic—“if you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all”—and for a laugh so full and joyful that, as one friend said, “he laughed with his whole body.” Some will remember him calling square dances with a booming voice that needed no microphone; others will recall his younger days playing drums in a local band with Shorty and Ed Carda and his then future brother-in-law, Robert (Bob) Sheehan. To his daughter, he will always be a hero.