Ricky Dale Cooley was born to Forrest (Spade) and Jeanetta (Wells) Cooley on February 3, 1964 in Gillette Wyoming. They moved to Sidney in 1969. Some of his favorite childhood memories were of going hunting and trapping with his dad and their friends. Rick graduated from Sidney High School in 1982 with honors and attended a few years of college. He met Luann Harris at a high school basketball game. After 3 years of dating Rick accepted Luann’s proposal and they were married on August 9, 1986. Through that marriage they had two children, Ashley Ann Cooley and Tenna Marie Cooley who were the loves of his life. Rick enjoyed spending as much time as possible with his girls. He loved when they were all together on a Friday or Saturday night watching movies, eating really buttery popcorn, and just spending time together. He would always tell Luann that they needed to enjoy this because the girls will grow up too fast. Rick worked at many different jobs starting in high school. He did roustabouting, helped drive truck during harvest and eventually worked on the oil rigs for a few years between going to college. In 1988 Rick went to work at Sidney Millwork Company where he stayed for 17 years. He loved building the cabinets and he was very proud of the work that he and his co-workers did at Millwork. Working at Sidney Millwork Company allowed him to develop the skills that he used to do various projects to enhance his home for his family. This included building the kitchen cabinets, building and rebuilding the back deck at least 3 times and re-siding the entire house himself. He even enjoyed having the family help him with these projects whether it was pulling out bushes, trees or tree stumps or shoveling river rock for weeks. He moved over to CDI in 2005 and built pumps for the oil rigs. When they transitioned to EDI, he became the shop manager. Rick focused on ensuring the customers were happy and he enjoyed working with all the different people in the companies. In his spare time Rick loved playing softball as a pitcher with “the guys”. They started a Millwork team and a few years later they became the Ranger Blue team. They participated in many tournaments and the State Softball Tournament throughout the summers. It was at one of the co-ed tournaments where he had the opportunity to play softball with his daughter Ashley, he always said those were his favorite games he ever played. After his softball days were done, he started to golf with some friends once a week. They even got into some tournaments after a couple of years. He thoroughly enjoyed the game and always found a way to keep it fun and relaxing. 4 wheeling out in the Badlands with his family and friends was another way he got to enjoy the outdoors. Those day-long excursions were times that were spent exploring new places with beautiful scenery and history with some great memories being made. He was a lifelong Kansas City Chiefs fan who religiously watched their games every Sunday. He enjoyed trying to teach his daughters about the game and took his family to see them play at Arrowhead Stadium in 2004.
Rick’s hard fought battle with cancer ended on Monday, May 20, 2019 at Billings Clinic where he was surrounded by his family.
Rick is survived by his wife Luann Cooley, daughters Ashley (Owen) Hall and Tenna Cooley, grandson Tyler Hall, mother Jeanetta Cooley, sister Kelly Hurley, aunt Donna (Ken) Ballou and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his father Forrest (Spade) Cooley, grandparents Junior (Margaret) Cooley and Leland (Cletus) Wells.