Jay Queen

Jay Queen, 75, of Lake McConaughy, passed away Saturday February 22, 2025 at his home surrounded by his family.

Funeral Services will be held at 1:00 p.m. Friday, February 28, 2025 at the Antelope Valley Church near Oshkosh with Dave Brown officiating. Burial with military honors will follow in the Antelope Valley Cemetery 

The services will be streamed live and available to watch after the service on the Holechek-Bondegard Funeral Home Facebook page (www.facebook.com/hbfunerals).

Visitation will be one hour prior to services at the church.

Holechek-Bondegard Funeral Home and Cremations in Oshkosh is serving the Queen family.

Memorials in Jay’s name can be made to the Antelope Valley Church.

Jay Rodell Queen, born February 20, 1950, in Bridgeport, NE, to Asa C. and Evelyn Maxine (Hutchinson) Queen, passed away in his home at Lake McConaughy on February 22, 2025.

Jay started helping his dad around the ranch at 6 years old, drove a two-day cattle drive at 13. He continued to do ranch work around school until he graduated from Garden County High School in 1968.

Jay was working for Rollie Orr as a ranch hand when he left for Army basic training in February 1968. He volunteered to serve in lieu of being drafted and was assigned to the Army Infantry. He attended Basic Training and AIT in Fort Lewis, Washington. He served with the 4th Infantry in the Vietnam Central Highlands, acting as platoon sergeant, and discharged a Sergeant from Fort Carson, CO, February 1971. He earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Bronze Star with “V” Device for Gallantry and Oak Leaf Cluster for meritorious service, the Air Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal with 2 Bronze Service Stars, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm Device.

He returned home to work at Rush Creek Land and Cattle Company, and then for Clint Gade. He tried his hand at construction work with Ronald Callies and then Paul Robinson. Shortly after his marriage to Starla Campbell in January 1972, they moved to Enid, OK, to work in the oil field. He started as a roustabout for an oil drilling company but soon landed a coveted job at the Champlin Oil Refinery. He was there for three years, where he learned to be a pipe fitter. His two daughters were born there, Shauna in 1972, and Sheri in 1974.

He missed Nebraska and his family, so he moved back to work at the Oshkosh Feedlot in 1975. He was offered a job as manager of the Herb Hartman Ranch north of Oshkosh and worked for him until fall of 1976, when he took a position as a ranch hand with Eldon Peterson south of Arthur, NE.

In January of 1978, he went to college in Sidney, NE, to get his diploma in Auto Mechanics. From January 1979 until August 1980, he worked as a mechanic for Dave Doll’s Keith County Motors in Ogallala, NE. His son Levi was born in 1980 in Brule, NE.

He then took a leap of faith and bought the Daylight Donut Shop in Ogallala. He rolled dough for the next 17 years, and all of his kids grew up working in the donut shop. People from all over told him they always made a point to stop when they were in the area because he made the best donuts in the country.

After selling the Ogallala and Oshkosh shops in 1997, he tried his hand at cattle buying until he went to work for Butch Orr that same year as a ranch hand. In 2000, he got his life and health insurance license and went to work with Starla selling AFLAC Insurance. He did that until 2010 when he started Eagle Canyon Horseback Adventures and served as trail boss. In 2013, he closed up that business and worked at being retired by working cowboy day work until he got too sick to help. No matter what he was doing, he was always a cowboy.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents Jay B and Velma (Cunningham) Queen, Ted Hutchinson and Edith Abbot, his parents Asa and Maxine Queen, and his son Levi Queen. 

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Starla, his daughter Shauna Queen Perez, his daughter Sheri Queen and her husband Jacob Carr, grandchildren Camden, Marissa, Josiah, Olivia, Isaac, Seriah, and Eliyah Perez; Rowen, Paige Queen, and Owen Scripter; Ryan, Ella, and Evan Carr.