Wayne was born in Camp Crook, South Dakota on October 28, 1932 to Ida Ewalt Brewer and Wesley Brewer. He was raised on the family ranch between Ekalaka, Montana and Camp Crook. Wayne was a proud third generation Montanan, his grandparents having homesteaded in the Ekalaka area in 1900.

As a young man he stayed in the area working on various ranches and farms, eventually working for the rural electric company as a lineman in Medicine Lake, Montana. He married Rita Anne Chandler with whom he had 2 sons, William and Robert. They eventually divorced and he later married Donna Mae Ralston of...