Orval "Lynn" Myers

Orval “Lynn” Myers, 69, of rural Lewellen passed away Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at the Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff.

Memorial Services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, February 2, 2019 at the Arthur Baptist Church with Pastor Jack Needham officiating.  Services will conclude at the church and private family burial will be held at a later date.

Per Lynn’s wishes cremation has taken place and there will be no visitation at the funeral home.

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

A memorial in Lynn’s name has been established to the Rackett Rural Fire Department.

Orval Lynn Myers was born January 5, 1950 in Alliance, Nebraska to Mildred Arletta (Dinkle) Myers and Orval LeRoy Myers.  He grew up on a farm outside of Hay Springs, Nebraska and following high school graduation attended Chadron State College majoring in business administration.  While in college he met Marlene Tippetts and on June 24, 1972 they got married.  While attending college he worked for Harvey Equipment as a bookkeeper.  Following Marlene’s graduation in 1973, they moved to her parents’ ranch in the Rackett community.  They lived with her parents while remodeling Marlene’s grandfather’s house until they were able to move into it.  Lynn learned the ranching lifestyle from his father-in-law and surrounding neighbors.  Just a short five years later, Marlene’s father passed away and Lynn and Marlene took over the managerial role of the ranching operation with Marlene’s mother.  Lynn and Marlene had two children, Creston and Carissa, and settled into a lifetime of experiences ranching in the Nebraska Sandhills.

Lynn forged a lot of friendships throughout the neighborhood and loved nothing more than going to help a neighbor do some work horseback.  In his later years as he became plagued with health problems, Lynn never stopped riding his faithful horse, Apache, even though he had to carry a ladder with him sometimes banging off his saddle horn in order to be able to get onto his horse.  He believed strongly in low stress cattle management and set up several clinics in Nebraska.  Lynn was passionate about range management and education and traveled to several local, state, and national meetings to provide his expertise about a variety of grazing topics and ranch transition.  He worked closely with the National Resource Conservation Service to renovate meadow grassland for improved production and enrolled the ranch in equip programs to promote grazing conservation and wildlife.  He was a board member of the National Grazing Land Coalition.  He received the Lifetime Conservation Stewardship Award from the Nebraska Grazing Land Coalition in 2018 for his efforts toward grazing and conservation.  Lynn believed in passing on his knowledge to the next generation so he started the Nebraska Mentoring Program.  He had 6 students he mentored at the ranch and helped them get their start in ranching as well as networking with other producers to expand the mentoring program statewide.  He had a generous nature and loved to invest in giving young ranchers a start and was always willing to lend them expertise.  He was also a member of the Nebraska Cattlemen and was the Cow/Calf Council Chair for a number of years. 

He loved to sing and play his banjo and would frequently play at the nursing homes.  He was a member of the Cowboy Capital Barbershop Chorus for several years.  He also spent many years actively square dancing in the Arthur, Lewellen, Hyannis and Alliance clubs.  He was a member of the Rackett Rural Fire Department, serving as the secretary/treasurer for 43 years.  He was an outgoing person who never met a stranger and lived by the motto “willing to try anything once.”

He is survived by his wife Marlene; son, Creston (Terri) Myers; daughter, Carissa (Phillip) Munn; grandchildren, Garrett and Braden Myers and Adee Arnold and Wyatt Munn; brother, Arvid (Marge) Myers; and numerous nieces, nephews, neighbors and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Sandra Larson.