Mollie Adams

Mollie Adams, age 101, of Miles City passed away on March 25, 2012 at the Holy Rosary Extended Care in Miles City, MT.
Mollie Adams was born July 10, 1911 in a "Soddy" in Harding County, South Dakota. The fourth of five children born to Mathus and Theresa (Krebor) Smolnikar, immigrants from Yugoslavia. Mollie and her sibling had to learn English when they started school and then taught their parents. School was never a very high priority with her father, so when there was work to be done at home, some or all of the kids stayed home. In spite of this, all of the Smolnikar children had excellent hand writing and a thirst for knowledge, and became successful in business and Life. Mollie started working for neighbor families as a hired girl before she was a teenage, however it didn´t take her long to figure out that carrying wash water in and out and washing diapers by hand for board and room, wasn´t going to get her very far in life. So when she got out of grammar school she got a job as a waitress in Buffalo, SD, 50 miles from home, for board and room and fifty cents a day. Mollie continued to work around northwest South Dakota and southwest North Dakota for several years. Mollie always said that no matter where her wanderlust took her, she always ended back at the Fowler Hotel in Buffalo. This is where she met W.H. (Bill) Adams, who was working as a teller at the local bank. For you Dakotans, Bill was a brother to Hattie Wilson and Amy Dingle. Bill and Mollie married and rented a house in Belle Fourche. Bill was driving mail from Belle Fourche to Buffalo when the local banker lost control on a gravel ridge and Bill was laid up for a while. They heard about the Miles City and Broadus Stage contract, bid on it, and moved to Miles City. They bought a small acreage on east Leighton Street, where they milked a few cows, raised chickens, sold eggs, raw milk, and cream. Then comes the Second World War, everything was rationed, tires, gas, and sugar. Now the Stage was considered vital to the war effort so they go a preferential allotment because they hauled the mail freight and passengers. After Bill died in 1952, Mollie continued to drive the Mail. After 26 years, Mollie gave up the route. She received an award for 1 million 250 thousand accident free miles. Mollie wasn´t ready for the rocking chair, so she worked in the geriatric floor of the old hospital, until she hurt her back lifting patients. Mollie lived in the same house on Leighton Street for 67 years, before moving to the Holy Rosary Extended Care for six years.
Mollie leaves several nephews and nieces and a host of friends behind. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and all four of her siblings, Matt Smolnikar and Frank Smolnikar, Mare Ward, and Anna Robinson.
Visitation will be held on Thursday, March 29, 2012 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home in Miles City. Funeral services will be held on Friday, March 30, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. at Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home in Miles City. Burial will be held on Saturday, March 31 at the Bear Butte Cemetery in Sturgis, SD. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting: www.stevensonandsons.com.