Emma Fredrickson

Emma Lou Fredrickson, 82, passed away of natural causes Friday, July 8, 2005, at the Kalispell Regional Hospital.

Emma was born June 18, 1923, in Enderlin, N.D., to Walter and Ellen Kaber. The Kaber family moved to Whitefish in 1935. Emma attended school in Whitefish and graduated from high school in 1941.

She went on to college at Northern College in Havre and became a teacher. She taught school in Brockton and Markus, Wash. In Markus, she met and married Bert E. Fredrickson, and they were married at the Hitch'n Post in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, on June 5, 1948.

Emma started teaching in Whitefish in 1962, where she taught English and literature. She went back to school at the University of Montana and received her master's degree in library science. She then became librarian at Whitefish Junior High School and later Whitefish High School. She retired in 1996.

Emma Lou loved to teach. Teaching students not how to read, but how to love to read, was her passion. She also enjoyed playing cards. If you didn't know how to play cribbage, she would teach you.

For the last three years, she has been cared for by her granddaughter-in-law Mary Umbriaco.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Bert, her brothers Marvin and Louis Kaber, and her sister Lois Hull.

Emma is survived by her daughters Mary Ellen Harker, in Kalispell, and Thea Lou Roach, and husband Jay, in Columbia Falls; her son Dirk David Fredrickson, in Alamosa, Colo.; her brothers Harvey Kaber, in Laurel, and Larry Kaber, and wife Charlotte, in Kalispell; grandchildren Lisa, Amie, Jamie and Jackie Harker, Jason, Benjamin, Samuel and Peter Umbriaco, and Cassie, Erin and Dane Fredrickson; 10 great grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

There will be a memorial celebration of Emma Lou's life Thursday, July 14 (today), at 10 a.m. at the Austin Funeral Home in Whitefish, with Rev. John Bent, officiating. Burial will follow at the Whitefish City Cemetery.

The family suggests that memorials be made to the Whitefish City Library.