Freda Lucille Feusner

Obituary: Freda Lucille (Niday) Feusner
1913 - 2008

Former Powell, WY resident, Freda Lucille (Niday) Feusner died at the age of 95 at the Prestige Assisted Living residence at Mira Loma in Henderson, NV, on Friday, July 18, 2008. She had lived a few years in the Las Vegas/Pahrump, NV, area near her son, Joe, for the past six years after losing her husband, Wayne, in late 2001.

One of four siblings born to Albert and Nora Niday, Freda was born on June 4, 1913, on the Foster Farm southeast of Union, NE. She graduated from Union High School with the class of 1931. After high school, she worked various places in the Union, Nebraska area while living at home on the family farm. She met her future husband, Wayne, who had made several trips to eastern NE, in Union on a blind date. On April 5, 1939, Freda married Wayne Feusner in Nebraska City, NE, and they moved to Basin, WY to begin their married life. Together they worked with the Feusner family to build and operate their family-owned dairy processing business, which became known throughout the Big Horn Basin as Cream of the Valley Dairies. This business had been organized and started on Emblem Bench west of Greybull, WY in 1935 to supplement a farming income.

While living in Basin and working the family dairy business, two sons, LeRoy and Joe Feusner, were born in the mid 1940s. As their dairy business continued to prosper and grow, the family moved to Powell in 1948 to establish the central milk processing plant and corporation headquarters. Freda worked as the head bookkeeper for the dairy processing business until 1982. Their dairy products received many high quality state awards and were marketed within the entire Big Horn Basin from Powell to Lander, WY, and southern Montana. In the 1970s, the family-owned business was expanded into a full line of manufactured plastic blow-molded beverage containers with manufacturing plants in Powell, Billings, MT, and Denver, CO, and a large chicken egg production operation and frozen food product line in Basin. Cream of the Valley industries thrived for over 47 years as a family-owned business until February 1982, when the Feusner family sold the entire dairy processing/food and plastic blow-mold container manufacturing industries. Wayne and Freda retired in Powell until Wayne died in late 2001.

Freda loved to crochet and took great pride in working their large vegetable and flower gardens that surrounded their home. She was an outstanding cook for her family, an immaculate housekeeper, and a talented seamstress. She took pride in her family's many activities and achievements.

She is survived by two sons, LeRoy (Lynnette) Feusner of Cheyenne, WY, and Joe (Jo Ann) Feusner of Pahrump, NV; four grandchildren, Kristi (John) Warden of Fort Worth, TX, Katreena (Joe) Mullican of Huntsville, AL, Jonathan (Ellie) Feusner of Wichita, KS, and Janell Feusner of Las Vegas, NV; one great-grandson, Timothy Mullican of Huntsville, AL; and, several nephews and nieces. Mrs. Feusner was preceded in death by her husband, Wayne Feusner, on December 28, 2001; her parents, Albert and Nora Niday of Union, NE; two brothers, Earl Niday of Wymore, NE, and Glen Niday of Lincoln, NE; and one sister, Donna Jean (Niday) Dayton of Kansas City, MO.


A private graveside memorial service will be held at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Powell on Friday, July 25, 2008, at 2 p.m. under the direction of the Thompson Funeral Home. Freda will be interred alongside her husband, Wayne.