Wallace D. Overfelt

Wally Overfelt was born on May 17, 1931, in Livingston, Montana at the height of The Great Depression. Growing up, Wally and his older sister, Wanda, attended a one-room schoolhouse and lived on several different ranches where their parents, Walter and Bernice (Tendeland) Overfelt, were the foreman and the cook. When he was in high school, Wally was the football star of Livingston High School and was later recruited to play football at Montana State University. After a short stay at college, Wally became the foreman of the famous Matador Ranch in Texas. At the age of 25, he entered the 10th Mountain Division of the United States Army. He qualified as an "Expert M-1" and received the Good Conduct medal upon discharge. After the service, he returned to ranching with his mother and sister on the Little Snowy Mountain Ranch until its sale. After they sold the ranch, he traveled the country in a Cadillac pulling an inline trailer rodeoing and managed to qualify for the first-ever National Finals Rodeo held in Dallas, TX in 1959.

Through divine circumstances, Wally met a grain farmer's daughter from Missouri Valley at her first-ever rodeo, in Sidney Iowa. Wally and JoAnna were married November 10, 1963. Their first boy, Shawn, was born in August of 1964, and Sterling was born the next August, in 1965. They temporarily located in Missouri Valley to help JoAnna’s father, Clark, with farming due to his failing health. Through an ad in the Omaha World-Herald, Wally found the Ashford Ranch land which he would later purchase and call home. They first relocated to Dakota City where he built the first house while becoming the scale house foreman at Iowa Beef Packers. He and the boys raised cattle and enjoyed rodeoing for fun on the weekends. Their third son, Shane, was born in 1971, and

they finally welcomed a daughter, Tiffany JoAnn, in 1982. By God's amazing grace, in 1973, JoAnna and Wally began a personal relationship with the Lord. This would greatly impact the quality of and continually extend Wally’s life. In 1974, Wally’s back was miraculously healed at a Pentecostal healing meeting from a spine diagnosis that was expected to end his ranching permanently. In 1990, after collapsing at the West Point cattle sale, Wally was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. This led them to Tulsa, OK to Rhema’s Healing School where he was told, “Bitterness and unforgiveness are deadly and they will kill you.” At that moment, Wally released all kinds of offenses that he had held against others. After this, the doctor at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center came in and said, “There is no cancer in the biopsy.” This was credited as being a miracle and his doctors later said he was in the one percentile of people in the world who have survived esophageal cancer. Whenever Wally would pray, he would say, "Thank you, Lord, that You are our Source." Wally famously said, "It's not how much I love the Lord, but how much He loves me. It's not how much I can do for Him, but what He has done for me at the Cross.” Wally graduated to his heavenly home on March 11, 2024, to hear, "Welcome to Heaven, Cowboy, your entry fees are paid in full.” Wally was preceded in death by Father Walter, Mother Bernice Overfelt, and sister Wanda Bonnarens Wally is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, JoAnna as well as his children Shawn, Sterling (Linda), and Shane, and daughter Tiffany (Drew) King; and 16 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren, 2 more soon to be here.  He lives on in the hearts of family, friends, and the many lives he touched.