Joe McTighe

Joe McTighe, 92, lifelong Meade and Perkins County Rancher/Cowboy, passed away peacefully at the Hospice House in Rapid City, SD on Tuesday, December 29, 2020.

Cumian Joseph McTighe Jr. – Joe – was born June 1st, 1928 to Cumian Joseph Sr. and Julia Marguerite (Swafford) McTighe on their homestead one mile west of Maurine, SD. Joe was the 9th of 13 siblings and the first boy. He grew up during the Great Depression, just one year old when the stock market crashed. The McTighe children learned frugality during those lean years, and a great sense of self-sufficiency that Joe carried throughout his life.

Joe attended Maurine country school and after completing 8th grade spent the next two years working for neighbors, herding sheep from a sheep wagon, and various other ranch jobs. After two years of this he began high school at St. Martin’s Academy in Sturgis. When he was able to return to the ranch on weekends and during vacations, he would often have to catch a ride with the mail truck or an acquaintance heading in that direction. Joe excelled in his studies, graduating with high honors in just three years with the class of 1947. 

Joe joined the US Army in 1951 and was stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington and Camp Rucker, Alabama. After one year of active duty, Joe received an honorable discharge so he could return home to care for his mother and younger siblings after his father passed away from cancer. Joe was in the Army Reserves for five years following his release from active duty. Joe also spent time earning wages in the oil fields. From 1949 to ’50, and again from ’55 to ’56 he worked in multiple states: South and North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana.

Along with younger brother Jim, Joe took over the family ranch that was homesteaded in 1907. Joe and Jimmy lived and worked there until they were given the opportunity to buy a ranch 10 miles north of Maurine from Pete Able, one of the neighbors for whom they had also been working. In 1964 Joe and Jim purchased this ranch, along with the cattle, buildings, and equipment and soon moved into the big house on what became known as the North Place. It was then the Hereford herd that has always been Joe’s biggest pride began to grow. The innovation and make-due spirit instilled in Joe and Jim at an early age ensured they were able to use their innovation, wit, and a wide variety of skills to build up and improve the ranch over the years.

After living as a bachelor for years and enjoying being an uncle to his many nieces and nephews, on New Year’s Eve 1982 Joe and Joanne Jensen were married in the chapel of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Rapid City. They settled in a little house right next to Deep Creek on the North Place, with Joanne working alongside Joe in all aspects of ranching. On December 7th, 1983 their only child, daughter Teri, was born. Many have described Teri as the “apple of Joe’s eye” and that is evident in everything he has done throughout his life to ensure her security and well-being.

After Jimmy passed in 1986, Joe and Joanne continued to run the ranch together, ever improving Joe’s Hereford herd, working cattle horseback, growing a big garden, haying, etc. In 1992 they moved to the Maurine homestead where they lived for Joe’s remaining years on the ranch. Joe’s most constant working partners starting in 1995 and ’96 were his trusted hands Paul Guggolz and Kevin Willey. Kevin was Joe’s working partner for nearly 20 years, together the two of them took pride in all aspects of the ranch and continuing the Hereford lines.

One of the things many people most remember about Joe is his love of music. Joe retained his strong and beautiful singing voice his entire life. Teri has especially fond memories of Joe’s musical talents, of him singing songs such as “You Are My Sunshine” “Little Red Wagon” and “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” while he played the old Sears catalog guitar he’d had since he was a teenager. Joe and Jimmy played guitar and sang together for many years, they inherited both parents’s vocal and instrumental gifts, singing and playing often to entertain family and friends. At one time they were offered a job as musicians on KOTA radio but chose to stick with the ranching life instead. Joe could be heard almost every weekend leading the hymns from his pew at the front of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church at Mud Butte. He was a devoted lifelong member of the parish and his faith was of great importance to him. Joe followed a strict moral code of honesty and hard work. His gruffness at times concealed a kind, generous, compassionate heart for people and animals. As one person aptly described, his “bark was worse than his bite.”

Joe continued to reside on the ranch until his final year of life. He rode horses until he was 80 and was still driving the tractor to feed cows when he was 86. Joe enjoyed a long, healthy, and active ranching life. Joe also enjoyed telling his many entertaining stories, hunting deer with friends and relatives along Deep and Lily Creeks for many decades, and took up the hobby of flintknapping in the early 1990’s – he enjoyed hunting for unique rocks and turning them into spear points and arrow heads. Joe liked to draw as well, often sketching and doodling on the backs of envelopes and stray bits of paper. For many years Joe hosted poker games with friends and neighbors, and could often be found at the old Maurine gas station/garage when it was still open playing cribbage around lunchtime. Joe was also a talented welder, and many of his creations are still used on the ranch today – portable panels, gates, stanchions, pens, and more. He had a mind for design and engineering and used that to make various aspects of the ranch more workable.

One of the highlights of Joe’s later years, as a gift for his 80th birthday, was a trip to Ireland with Teri, and his nephew Charles Nuzum who planned and executed the entire trip. In 10 days they saw parts of London and rural England, Welsh castles and countryside, and took a ferry across the Irish Sea to visit Dublin, drive the Circle of Kerry, visit the Hill of Tara where St. Patrick gave his famous speech, kiss the Blarney Stone at the top of Castle Blarney, and try to find McTighe ancestors in County Cork where it is believed Joe’s branch of the McTighe family originated.

After being officially diagnosed with dementia the year before, in September of 2019 Joe moved to The Village in Rapid City into their memory care unit. Joe was safe and happy there for more than a year. A hip fracture on November 14th was the beginning of his final decline in health. Joe passed away on December 29th at Hospice House in Rapid City, accompanied during his stay there by Joanne, Teri, family members and close family friends. Teri was at his side as he took his final breath. Joe was 92 years old.

Preceding Joe in death are his parents; 10 sisters: Martha, Jean, Gertrude, Rita, Geraldine, Sister Marie of St. Martin’s Convent, Martina, Dorothy, Helen, and Elizabeth; his brother Jim; several of his nieces and nephews.

Joe is survived by his wife Joanne and daughter Teri, both of whom continue to manage the family ranch and raise his herd of Hereford cows. He is also survived by his youngest sister Amy Gruntmeir of De Smet, brother-in-law Juno Sundstrom of Lead/Deadwood, and numerous nieces and nephews many of whom are the heads of their own growing branches of the McTighe family tree.

   Visitation for Joe will be at Evanson-Jensen Funeral Home in Faith from 3 - 6 PM on Thursday, January 7th, followed by a family service at 6:00. Funeral services will be held Friday, January 8th at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Faith, there will be a 10:00 AM rosary followed by 10:30 funeral mass. A military burial service for Joe will take place that afternoon, 2:30 PM, at the Black Hills National Cemetery outside of Sturgis.