Stella Tanner dies at age 99

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

Stella Tanner of Yahtahey, died Monday, Jan. 1. She was 99 years old. Gallup artist Jimmy Abeita painted this picture of her in 1988. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

GALLUP — Stella McGee Tanner, whose children settled in Gallup and continued an Indian trading dynasty, has died at the age of 99.

She and her husband, the late Ruel "Chunky" Tanner, ran a series of trading posts and restaurants around the Four Corners area for almost three decades. She then joined with one of her sons to start Stella's Restaurant in Yah-Ta-Hey.

The Tanners had seven boys and one girl and throughout the years, Stella Tanner ran several restaurants.

"She really loved cooking," said her son, Ellis Tanner.

She was born Dec. 24, 1906 in Jewett Valley near Farmington and met her future husband at a dance.

After getting married, the two went to Phoenix, where they went to work for Shamrock Dairy. They saved up their money and were finally able to buy a Model T Ford which they used to get into the Indian trading business.

Joe Tanner said that they eventually sold the Model T to Whif Wheeler as a down payment on a trading post he owned in Montezuma Creek, Utah.

She then became a trading post wife and loved it, he said.

That was good because being a trading post wife in those days meant living a life of isolation.

Getting to the trading post in itself was a chore because of the unpaved road and having to get over the Montezuma Wash.

Ruel Tanner realized this and as a joke he put up a sign near the wash one day. "Hell, half a mile, Montezuma Creek 1 mile."

The two ran the trading post for two lambing seasons and then traded their interest in that trading post for another trading post at Tsaya, which is halfway between Farmington and Bisti.

By that time, they began having children, with J.B. being the first, followed by the late Robert L., Dorothy (now Campbell), Don, and then Ellis, who was known kiddingly as "Peaches" because his mother was making 50 quarts of peaches when she had to go to the hospital for him.

Another son, Ricky, who is now deceased, would follow and then Gerald and finally Joe. They finally decided to pull up stakes again and moved to Colorado where they created Mountain View, which included a Phillips 66 and the first of the Stella's Cafes. The business also included an apple house they owned an apple orchard and a major business in buying and raising lambs.

They sold Mountain View in 1955 and moved to Phoenix, where Ruel died in 1957 after suffering from asthma for years and a lifetime of smoking.

Eventually, the family would start gravitating toward Gallup.

It began with J.B. and Don signing a contract with Gallup Merchantile to set up a business at Gamerco that became known as Navajo Shopping Center, with their mother helping to provide some of the start-up money.

"This was the first place," said Joe Tanner, "that the Navajo people could come to and sell anything that they made or grew for cash and not barter."

Stella started up the cafe there and ran it until the Tanners sold their interest in 1962. While her children were starting trading businesses on almost every road into Gallup, Stella went north a little ways to Yah-Ta-Hey and started Stella's Cafe there while J.B. set up a trading business.

She was there for 10 years before leaving for Phoenix, where she married Carl Allen who owned a Best Western Inn in Winslow. The two eventually sold the hotel and returned to live in retirement in Mesa.

She was described by her children as a person who was never judgmental, one who never had a harsh word for anyone and lived by the rule that if you didn't have anything to say nice about a person, you didn't say anything.

Even as she got older, she continued to be active, walking three to five miles a day and working at the local LDS temple and visiting her family, which was growing. By the time of her death, she had 52 grandchildren, more than 100 great grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren.

She is survived by two brothers, Ellis and Cliff McGee and two sisters, Ruth Tanner and Cecelia McGee and their families.

Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Brewer, Lee and Larkin Mortuary in Farmington, which is located at 103 Ute Street..

The funeral will be at the Kirtland Chapel at 11 a.m. Friday and burial will be at the Farmington Memory Gardens.