Sereta's Obituary
Sereta Ann Gerhart Taylor passed away suddenly of a stroke on February 5, 2024, at the age of 83. She was born on July 31, 1940, in Great Falls, Montana to George and Gladys (Krebs) Gerhart. Her first home was up Briggeman Coulee east of Armington, Montana on the ranch known as the “home place” where her dad had grown up. When she was four years old, her parents bought a ranch seven miles east of Belt, MT in the foothills of the Highwood Mountains. They moved there on her 4th birthday. Her elementary education was in a one-room schoolhouse about a mile up the road from her home. She graduated from Belt Valley High School in 1958. In 1959, she married Justin Garth Wade of Virginia. To this union was born one daughter, Holly Joy (Wade) Heser, in August of 1960. They made their home in Great Falls. Though they divorced a couple of years later, they remained good friends the rest of their lives.
Sereta attended Montana State University (then called Montana State College) where she obtained a degree in home economics with a minor in history. In March 1964, she married William (Bill) Taylor of Cascade, MT, and they resided in Great Falls. Sereta taught home economics at East Junior High School in Great Falls for 15 years, before leaving to help care for Bill’s aging father. They were married just short of 50 years when Bill passed away in 2013.
The most important thing Sereta wanted you all to know was that she was a Christian. She did far more than just say she believed. She based her life on Christ, striving daily to live a life that reflected Him. She was active for many years in a Christian Women’s Club and her church. Truly, she had the heart of a servant. This was evident in all the caregiving she did for her family and others throughout the years. She took care of her mother for twelve years in their home so she would not have to go to a nursing home, and even moved to Glasgow, MT at the age of 75 to care for her first great-grandchild.
Sereta’s mother often said of her, “She is the most capable woman!” It was really true. Growing up she was her dad’s “hired man,” working outside year round on the ranch during haying, harvesting, feeding cows, and calving. She and Bill were active in Montana Flying Farmers, and she obtained a private pilot’s license so she could fly their Cessna 182. She loved both hunting and fishing, and they would fly into remote northern lakes in Canada to fish, packing everything into very rustic cabins. She was also an avid bird watcher, and she knew all about birds of every size and type (as well as wildlife, trees, mountain ranges, rivers, geology, and more).
This lady was not just outdoorsy, however. Sereta had beautiful taste in fashion and could sew just about anything. She could make wedding cakes, cater food for a crowd, set a table to rival Downton Abbey, and look like a million bucks doing it. What a wonderful role model she was for her students, her daughter, and all the grandkids.
More important than all her skills, was her loving, giving spirit which was unflagging to the end. Two hours before her death, she mailed Valentines to all the family, and they received these in the first few days after her passing.That says it all.
Sereta was preceded in death by her parents and husband, Bill. She is survived by her daughter, Holly and husband, Greg; as well as her three grandchildren and their families, Sereta Heser Row, her husband Johnny Row, and their three girls, Larkin, Vivienne, and Shivaun; Garth Heser and his husband Nick Garbiel, and Ava Heser Syverson, her husband Kyle Syverson, and their twins, George and Jane.
A funeral service will take place on Friday, February 16, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. at New Hope Lutheran Church.
