Veblen: The memorial service for Cathy Bien will be 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013, at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Veblen. Arrangements are under the direction of Price Funeral Chapel of Britton.
Mary Catherine Bien, known to most as Cathy, and in naval aviation circles as Dragon Lady, was born Oct. 11, 1945, in Tumwater, Wash., to Patrick and Faye Montague. She attended Catholic grammar school and then enrolled in the first class at the new Tumwater High School. Along with her family, she was active in the Catholic Church, which gave her a spiritual foundation that was at the heart of her entire being and sustained her through many challenging times. She was a student at the University of Washington but left school after two years to pursue her passion for aviation as an airline stewardess for United Airlines.
Cathy was engaged to be married to a Navy pilot, Terry Ryan, who was killed in a carrier aviation accident in early 1970, after which she met another Navy flyer, Lyle Bien. In the summer of 1972, they became engaged and were visiting the farm near Hillhead where Lyle grew up, when she was involved in a catastrophic horseback riding accident that very nearly took her life and left her a quadriplegic. After weeks of recovery, they were married in August 1972, with Cathy still immobilized and in traction in St. Luke's Hospital in Fargo, N.D. From there, she was transferred to the University of Washington Medical Center and later for 8 months of intense rehab in San Diego where she was finally released from the hospital just days short of one full year from the date of her accident.
For the next 26 years, Lyle pursued his career in naval aviation while Cathy took on the endless duties of caring for the wives and families of the sailors with whom he served. She also managed 11 household moves from coast to coast, was president of the Wives Club, the go-to girl for organizing everything from Christmas parties for the families to sending care packages to the sailors who were deployed, to just being the always-understanding ear whose phone was never too busy to take a late-night call from a 20-year old Navy wife alone and away from home for the first time. In addition to her volunteering to care for the Navy families, Cathy continued to work on her college degree, provide a welcoming home for an endless parade of visitors, and always make welcome her small cadre of lifelong friends who were as dear to her as her own life.
Cathy had a deep and studied belief in her God. She often prayed out loud as she said that kept her from going to sleep in her prayers. But even that did not always succeed, so she was often heard picking up her prayers in mid-sentence the next morning at the very place where she had fallen asleep the night before. She was awed by Navy jets and aircraft carriers, early prairie mornings, South Dakota Indian summer skies and children from infants to adults.
Cathy's was a fulfilled and active life that lost little of its velocity when she was confined to her wheelchair for 42 years.
All those years were shared with her husband, Vice Admiral Lyle Bien, retired, of Hillhead. Her life was made whole by the love of her sister, Carole Fox, Shelton, Wash., sister, Judi (John) Breunig, Springfield, Va.; and her brothers: Chuck (Dianne) and Mike Montague, Olympia, Wash.
Preceding her in death were her parents; her sister, Margaret Lahm; and her brother, Patrick Montague.
Cathy died peacefully at her home at Nine Mile Lake near Hillhead on Sept. 14, 2013, at 67. She chose to be buried at the Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego, Calif.
An online guestbook is available at pricefuneralchapel.net.