A love of gardening has never stopped growing for Francis Rose. His garden has taken over most of the yard at his Billings home and even spills out into the alley.
“I always try to use the land. I hate to see bare ground. You can probably figure that out,” he says.
Francis developed his “green thumb” at an early age.
“We had Victory Gardens in World War II. That’s what they were called. We wanted the food to go to the troops and you were trying to grow your own food,” he says.
It’s something he has continued to do all these years.
“It’s like raising kids. There’s something new every day and you have to get up when they get up,” Francis says jokingly.
He knows a little about raising kids—his own—and others. A three-sport college athlete who is in the Chadron State Athletic Hall of Fame, he coached wrestling and football at both the high school and college level.
In 1969, he took over a downtrodden football program at Rocky Mountain College in Billings and made the Bears competitive.
“The best year we only lost one game. Our record was 4-4-1. We won four, tied four, and lost one,” he says.
Like the plants he cares for, Francis also helped many of the players he coached mature and grow.
He later returned to the high school ranks at Billings West—coaching football and wrestling.
After retiring from coaching, he spent another 20 years tending the grounds at the old Cobb Field in Billings.
“I was a groundskeeper and cleaned the stands and I put four kids through college doing that,” he says.
These days, he is content growing his garden, and he still marvels at the miracle a tiny seed can produce.
“You can take that one seed and produce this whole crop right here off one seed. I tell you if you don’t believe that world was made by someone who had great planning to take care of us you know—and He did it. It really is a miracle,” he says.
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