View source for Jean Baucus

{{Short description|American historian and rancher (1917–2011)}}
'''Jean Baucus''' (July 7, 1917 – December 10, 2011) was an American historian and [[rancher]]. She was also the mother of [[U.S. Senator]] [[Max Baucus]] of [[Montana]] and longtime [[matriarch]] of the Baucus family.<ref name=billings>{{cite news|title=Jean Baucus — rancher, historian, senator's mother — dies at 94 |url=http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/jean-baucus-rancher-historian-senator-s-mother-dies-at/article_67f904a3-8752-5a82-83c8-a3fade3d4514.html |work=[[Billings Gazette]] |date=2011-12-10 |access-date=2011-12-26}}</ref> Her work as a historian focused primarily on the [[history of Montana]] and the [[American West]].<ref name=hir/><ref name=hir2>{{cite news|title=Keeping Helena history alive |url=http://helenair.com/news/opinion/keeping-helena-history-alive/article_4c97a2c4-61a1-5c7f-92d6-926467fe6af3.html |work=[[Helena Independent Record]] |date=2008-01-02 |access-date=2011-12-26}}</ref>
==Life and work==
Baucus was born '''Jean Sheriff''' on July 7, 1917, in [[Helena, Montana]], the daughter of Frederick B. and Bernice F. Sheriff.<ref name=billings/> Her paternal grandparents were Court and Mary (Hooper) Sheriff and her maternal grandparents were Henry and Alberta (Gordon) Sieben. In 1896, her maternal grandfather, Henry, purchased a ranch approximately twenty miles north of Helena, which stretches from [[Missouri River]] to [[Little Prickly Pear Creek]].<ref name=billings/> The land, which became known as the Sieben Ranch, remains a property of the Baucus family, owned by her son and daughter-in-law, John and Nina Baucus.<ref name=billings/>
Jean Sheriff was raised in both Helena and the Sieben Ranch.<ref name=billings/> She attended Hawthorne School and graduated from [[Helena High School]]. She received her [[bachelor's degree]] in [[economics]] in 1939 from [[Stanford University]].<ref name=billings/><ref name=hir/> In 1941 she gave birth to Max Sieben Enke, and later, her second child, Karen, with her first husband, Stephen Enke, Ph.D., a demographer and economist. When Max was two years old, Jean Sheriff left California and returned to Montana.  Baucus married her second husband, John J. Baucus, in 1946 and had a child with him, John.<ref name=billings/> Her oldest son, Max, took his stepfather's last name and, as [[Max Baucus]], entered politics, eventually becoming a U.S. senator from Montana. She was widowed in 1996.<ref name=billings/><ref name=hir/>
Baucus authored four [[nonfiction]] books focusing on the history of Helena and Montana including "''Helena: Her Historic Homes, Vols. 1 and 2''", which were released during the late 1970s, and "''Gold in the Gulch''," published in 1981.<ref name=hir/><ref name=hir2/> Another work, "''Helena: An Illustrated History''," which she co-authored with editor [[Vivian Paladin]], was first published in 1983 by the [[Montana Historical Society]].<ref name=billings/><ref name=hir2/> Baucus also wrote "''Henry Sieben, 1846-1937: Legacy of Livestock and Land''", a biography of her grandfather.<ref name=billings/> Her arts patronages included Holter Museum of Art in Helena.<ref name=billings/>
Jean Baucus died at her home in Helena, Montana, on December 10, 2011, at the age of 94.<ref name=billings/><ref name=hir>{{cite news|title=Jean Baucus dies at 94 |url=http://helenair.com/news/local/jean-baucus-dies-at/article_60052e4c-23c9-11e1-95ca-0019bb2963f4.html |work=[[Helena Independent Record]] |date=2011-12-11 |access-date=2011-12-26}}</ref>
==References==
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[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:Historians of Montana]]
[[Category:Historians of the American West]]
[[Category:Stanford University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Helena, Montana]]
[[Category:Writers from Montana]]
[[Category:American women historians]]
[[Category:American historians]]
[[Category:20th-century American philanthropists]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American women]]
[[Category:Helena High School alumni]]