Inez M. Green

Inez M. Green, 89 of Oberon ND passed away on Monday, August 29, 2022 at Unity Medical Center in Grafton ND in the loving care of family. 

Visitation will be held at the Bdecan Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, September 6, 2022 beginning at 12:00 p.m. with a funeral service at 2:00 p.m.  Burial will be in the Bdecan Cemetery.  

Inez Marie McKay was born to Patrick McKay and Florence Ironheart McKay Thumb at the Fort Totten Hospital on February 20, 1933. She attended the Boarding School at Fort Totten and also a country school in the rural Warwick area. 

She was at one time married to Eugene Gardell and from this union were born her three beautiful children Linda, Sharon and Larry Shane.

Music was Inez’s passion. She grew up in a very musical family. She was so musically talented, there wasn’t an instrument she couldn’t play. She believed in hard work to get the things that you wanted. She once worked for a farmer as a hired hand to earn a piano. She formed a band called “Princess Inez and the Gladiators” and they performed their music in the Twin Cities area for several years. This hard work, and her incredible talent brought her to the national country music scene. She played bass guitar for Hank Williams Jr. on a couple occasions and played on the same stage with many other notable country music stars. She was inducted into the Rock Country Hall of Fame, Lifetime Achievement Award for Minnesota on April 27, 2007. 

Inez was united in marriage to Jerry Green on August 1, 1995. Together they traveled throughout the United States spreading God’s word on the gospel circuit through their music and their testimonies. 

Inez lived in many places in her life, she had many different jobs in her life in order to help support her family and to support her ministry of faith, hope and love through music.  At the time of her death, she was making her home in Oberon, ND with her beloved Jerry.

Inez’s loving family include her husband Jerry; daughter Linda (Tony) Marcil, Minneapolis MN; son-in-law Larry Midstokke, Maddock ND; granddaughter she raised Heidi and her other precious grandchildren Kris-Tina, Trina, Shane Jr., Melissa, Brandy, Jesse, Nichole, Amy and Dana; several great grandchildren; siblings Joyce Affeldt, Wilbur (Delima) McKay, Darrel “Duke” (Grace) Thumb, Idell Thumb, Ed (Nan) Thumb and Elvis (Phaedra) Thumb Sr.; brother-in-law Paul Stensland; many treasured nieces, nephews and their families.

She was preceded in death by her parents, son Shane Gardell and daughter Sharon Midstokke, brothers Laverne McKay, Merle Thumb Sr., Roger Thumb and Gary Thumb Sr., sisters Loretta Stensland and Yvonne Thumb.

Casket Bearers will be Larry Midstokke, Bob Stensland, Monty Stensland, Matthew Friesen, Garrett Loftis and Gary Thumb Jr.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday, September 6, 2022 beginning at 12:00 noon at the Bdecan Presbyterian Church, rural Tokio ND with a funeral service at 2:00 p.m. at the church. Burial will be in the Bdecan Presbyterian Cemetery.