Kenneth Carl Combs

Kenneth Carl Combs, 73, died on December 6, 2025, at his home in Eureka, Montana. This eulogy begins with Kenneth’s sister, Kathleen Vaughn and then his wife Marita Combs.
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 31, 1952, my brother was the youngest of four siblings and the only boy. I remember riding home from the hospital peeking over the seat from the back, looking at our new baby brother in Mom’s lap. He had the brightest red hair I had ever seen in my life. He was adorable and I loved him!
Our home was in nearby Oak Ridge where our dad was the pastor of a growing church and our mother an amazing homemaker. Being a pastor’s child has its challenges, none the least of which is being under the scrutiny of the church members. It contributed to his slightly reclusive nature.
Ken was about 12 when we moved from Oak Ridge, Tennessee to Overland Park, Kansas where our dad, began pastoring at another church. It was here that his artistic eye and gift for photography began to develop. Our mother, an artist in her own right, loved filling the rooms of our home with lovely décor and her own beautiful oil paintings. Taking cues from her artistic bent, he began to use his camera to create wonderful pictures of his own.
After graduating from high school in 1969, Ken landed a job with Photo Corporation of America, which was setting up a photo studio in a Kmart, now Wal-Mart, for a week, photographing children and families before moving on to a different Kmart location in the Midwest states. Earning a living with his camera was a good start for his career. Later, while visiting with my family in the small Georgia town where we lived, Ken witnessed a structure fire in progress near the town square. He grabbed his camera and began shooting pictures. When he saw he had some great shots, he took them to the local newspaper, and we saw them on the front page the next day! I don’t think he was even paid, but it was exciting to see them take such a prominent place in the community paper.
Ken went on to take photography courses at the University of Kansas in Lawrence under the tutelage of photography professor Gary Mason. He free-lanced for the “Lawrence Journal World” and “Topeka Capital-Journal” covering sports and political events with his best friend Orlin Wagner, Associated Press photographer and freelance photojournalist to the “Kansas City Times” and “The Star”.
During his Lawrence days, he met a beautiful young woman who shared his interest in the lens. Her name was Marita Tolentino, and she became the love of his life. The couple married and spent their lives devoted to one another, to family and friends and neighbors. I won’t forget them lugging their cameras to family gatherings from Thanksgiving, to weddings and numerous events!
I miss my brother. We had many conversations and the ones toward the end were difficult. But there was peace when we talked about the Lord. We said Scriptures together, prayed and read the Bible. He was even quoting Psalm 23 in his sleep. We talked about Jesus and what He did on the cross to bring us home to Heaven. He remembered John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” I am thankful for the hope I have of seeing Ken again. I love you, Ken.
From Kenneth’s wife, Marita:
At 30 years of age, I married Kenneth within seven weeks of meeting him. He wasn’t going to get away; I had been looking for him for 12 years. On our five-month long honeymoon, we drove northward along the Rocky Mountains pulling a pop-up tent with a boat as its top cover, crossed into the Canadian province of Alberta, traveling westward to British Columbia, then dropping down into the Tobacco Valley of Montana. We camped at Burma Hill, Rexford Bench, and then Dickey Lake. The locals always waved to each other whether they knew you or not. We thought, “we could live here,” but we did not know how to make a living “so rural.” 
We settled in Port Orchard, Washington instead, where Kenneth worked at Bremerton’s Camera Shop. He earned a private pilot’s license and with another photographer began mapping Puget Sound for the emerging GIS or Geographic Information System, the pre-google Earth mapping method. He loved the Pacific Northwest, the mountains, sea creatures, and the people. It’s where he met his closest friend, Ross Mulhausen, a working photographer. They enjoyed boating and flying around Puget Sound. Our time in the northwest lasted four years before his yearning in 1985 to be closer to his parents in Kansas City. There, he worked as a press printer and established himself as a photographer of urban landscape. His most popular image was called Dreamscape of the Country Club Plaza.  Still, the mountains called Kenneth out of the flatlands of Kansas after five years subscribing to the Tobacco Valley News.
We bought land and a house on it, south of Eureka. In the winter of 1990, we arrived with our belongings in an 18-feet long step van. We were a couple without jobs, but I could see Kenneth’s joy having made it back to  these mountains, and people who still smiled and waved to strangers and neighbors; like KC, Rob, and Robin Little. They owned a Eureka downtown cable station with fiber-optic cables.
We created their Channel 4 into a 24-hour PowerPoint slide show with local news, events, and advertisers. This lasted four years until 1995, when the first internet service provider (ISP) in Montana was created: KooteNet out of Libby.
Joe and Carol Gibbons and their son Walter taught him how to care for a forested land and cars in all seasons. World War II gunner and pilot, Orvin Larson, our next-door neighbor, taught Kenneth what to do when meeting a lion and other local four-legged residents. Orvin had a grass runway for his Cessna 150 and, together they would fly along Whitefish Mountain Range, the Mission Mountains, and Glacier National Park-- back then air-unrestricted. At the “Fly-In” sponsored by the Board of Commerce in the 1990s, Orvin loaned his plane to Kenneth, who gave rides to children and adults.
For Kenneth, Tobacco Valley was a restful playground for mind, body, and soul. He skied down Therriault Pass, kayaked the Tobacco River, canoed Sophie and Tetrault Lakes, and bicycled the Ten Lakes Scenic Area.
The valley was also a place to express his artistry of photography. He published his photographs in a self-produced annual visitor’s guide, GoKootenai, for 24 years where private and commercial patrons found him and appreciated his art to adorn their homes and public spaces.
Kenneth was a driver for the Eureka Ambulance, a member of Can-Am Search and Rescue, and for 44 years, a devoted husband.  He played the piano, saxophone, and flute which began ceasing as his body was overtaken by asbestosis, lung cancer, and bone cancer. He installed homes with drywall containing harmful fibers. He struggled for years to breathe.
At the end, his best friend Ross Mulhausen and myself were at his side.
I don’t look for him among his ashes. I know he is flying in the winds of the universe, his church, with God, mom and dad, sisters Elaine and Dorothy. He is always with me.
Thank you, Sylvia and Charlie Moeller, Kenny Larson, Derek Larson, Walt & Connie Gibbons, John Gibbons, Josie Lockridge, Jacque & Patricia Bertin, Kathy & Kipper Vaughn, David Schilling, Jonathan Combs-Schilling, Margaret Kite Johnson, Vincent Burke, the Tolentinos (Corito, Jeffrey, Gina, James, Lito, Ed & Rosa), Gil Bautista, Bing Lorenzo, Linda “Sam” Haskins, Orlin Wagner, Ross Mulhausen, Diane McKinnis, Julie Smith, Brian Smith, Bryce Smith, Logan Healthcare and EVAS. In lieu of flowers consider a donation to EVAS Eureka Volunteer Ambulance Service, 103 Schagel Way, Eureka, MT 59917.
Kenneth’s memorial is on Saturday May 23rd at the Tobacco Valley Senior Center, 310 1st Avenue East in Eureka 1:00 pm – 1:30 pm.  Meal is served 11:30 – 2:00. Please come.

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