Jacqueline Jean Reilly

Jacqueline Jean Reilly passed away peacefully on May 17, 2021, at the age of 83. She was born on Aug. 19, 1937, in Billings. Her parents were Herman and Mildred Nygaard Walker.

Jacque graduated from Billings Senior High School. She was active in many school activities, plays, church youth group and Rainbow For Girls. She attended Eastern Montana College and married her college sweetheart, Donald Miller, on March 28, 1956. They adopted three children: Mark ,Todd and Cindy. During the years, they lived in California, Washington, Montana and Wyoming. Don passed away on Oct. 13, 2001, in Wheatland, Wyoming.

On April 24, 2004, she married the love of her life, John Reilly. They moved back to Billings in 2014 to be near family. John has a fun personality, and Jacque tended to be more serious, but he had a knack in bringing out her fun spirit.

Jacque loved her family and delighted in all of the extended family gatherings they had through the years. She was an avid genealogist and enjoyed scrapbooking pictures to go with each family from her nieces and nephews back to her great-grandparents. She worked at the Family History Center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 25 years and taught classes teaching others how to find their family. It was rewarding to see people delight in finding pictures and stories about their families.

She was an excellent seamstress, sewing lots of clothes for her children and herself. She liked to do crewel embroidery, knit, cross-stitch and grow vegetables and flowers. She went the extra mile in cooking dinners and decorating their home. She loved to decorate for each holiday. Christmas was her favorite, so she started decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving. She loved to travel and visited many states, Hawaii twice, Canada twice and her favorite, Tahiti.

She was preceded in death by her parents; first husband; half-sisters Betty Barkemeyer and Eva Hatten; sister Geraldine Brown and half-brother James Walker. She is survived by her husband, John Reilly; children Mark Miller, Todd Miller, Cindy (Jerry) Wegner; four grandchildren, two great-granddaughters; and nine stepchildren,  21 step-grandchildren, four step-great-grandchildren; and half-sister Marion Moots.

Celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, May 21, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3595 Monad Road. Visitation will begin at 12 noon at the church. Burial will be in Sunset Memorial Gardens.