Arthur Lyngstad

Arthur J. Lyngstad died of natural causes at the Montana Veterans Home on Feb. 19, 2005, after a short illness.

He was born March 28, 1922, in Willow City, N.D., to Ole and Ida Lyngstad, where he resided until he joined the Army in 1942. Receiving his honorable discharge in December 1945, he returned to Willow City where he married his high school sweetheart, Audrey Charleen Johnston, on March 24, 1946. They had three children and decided to move to Montana in 1951.

Originally arriving in Whitefish, he worked for Bell Telephone then transferred to the Columbia Falls office. He spent his career as a telephone repairman/electrician for Pacific Power & Light, Northwestern Telephone and eventually retiring from CenturyTel. Part of his career took him to Valdez, Alaska, which he enjoyed very much.

Throughout his life his hobbies included packing horses into the wilderness for his annual hunting trips, coaching Little League, golfing, bowling, playing guitar, singing, dancing and camping with friends and family. He also enjoyed watching track and field, baseball, football and especially basketball in his later years.

He will be missed by the people who loved him, but we will always smile when we think about the corny jokes he told over and over again, that is when he could get through them without giggling himself.

Art was preceded in death by his parents, an infant brother and his wife Charleen, who died Nov. 5, 2002.

He is survived by three children and their spouses, Mike and Vicki Lyngstad, of Alaska and Hamilton, Dee and Steve Brown, of Coram, and Loree and Ed Cumming, of Kalispell; seven grandchildren, Dennis, Kim, Michelle, Ryan, DeDee, Amy and DJ; two great grandchildren, Kyle and Alyssa; one brother; and four sisters.

There will be private grave-side services for the family.

Memorial gifts can be given in memory of Art to Arthur Lyngstad Memorial Fund, Montana Veterans Home, P.O. Box 250, Columbia Falls MT, 59912.

Leota Loveless

Leota May Pierce Loveless, 86, passed away Feb. 25, 2005, at the Heritage Place in Kalispell.

She was born Feb. 2, 1919, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, to John W. and Leota May (Belmear) Bartlett.

May was the youngest of seven children and the only child not born in the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma, where her family had homesteaded. Her mother died when May was two years old, and she was raised by her father, whom she affectionately referred to as PaPa.

May graduated from Idaho Falls High School in 1937 with honors. In 1939, she married Dale Roger Pierce in Idaho Falls. Shortly after they married, the couple moved to Dillon, where Dale was employed by the Forest Service during the summer and attended college in Logan, Utah, in the winter. In 1941, May moved with Dale as he was transferred with the Border Patrol to Malta and then to Browning.

When he left the Border Patrol in 1945, they purchased the Rising Wolf Guest Ranch, located on the South Fork of the Two Medicine River. That was their home until 1957. At that time, they moved to Columbia Falls. Dale passed away in Columbia Falls in 1961. May continued to raise her three younger children in Columbia Falls, while she worked at Todd's Cafe.

In 1972, May married Willard Loveless in Columbia Falls. They moved to Woods Bay in 1977 and lived there until moving to Kalispell in 1992. Willard passed away in 1993. May enjoyed her beautiful yard and flowers and loved her two cats and her dog, Cody.

May was preceded in death by her husbands, Dale Roger Pierce and Willard Loveless; her parents; three brothers, Edgar, George and Johnny; and three sisters, Beatrice, Mable and Edith.

She is survived by her five children, Koralyn Pierce Kibbee and husband, Larry, of Manhattan, Dale Raub Pierce and wife, Cheryl, of Kalispell, Lynette Pierce Dyk and husband, Dwight, of Toston, Tamarra Pierce Thompson and husband, Gary, of Clark, Wyo., and James B. Pierce and wife, Nancy, of Kalispell; several grandchildren and great grandchildren; and one great great grandchild.

Memorial services for May will be held later this summer. The family suggests that memorial gifts be given to the Humane Society.