Emily Leighty
Emily Leighty
Emily Leighty
Emily Leighty, 92, joined her family in heaven Dec. 13, 2008, at Heritage Place in Kalispell.
Vaclav and Rosie Sterba and their son Frank welcomed Emily into their home in Michel, B.C., on May 5, 1916. Six months later, the family move to Great Falls.
In 1919, they moved to a farm in the Lower Valley of Flathead County. Brother Jim was born in 1927 after Frank and Emily were attending Demersville School. The three attended there until eighth grade.
Emily graduated from Flathead County High School in 1934 and continued her education at Western Normal School in Dillon, where she received her elementary education diploma in 1936 and taught at the Tooley Lake School.
Emily met Bud Leighty and was married in 1939. They lived on a small cattle ranch on the West Kootenai near Gateway, where Bud and his brother operated a sawmill. While living there, Emily drove a mail route between Rexford and Gateway six days a week for 11 years.
She had two sons during this time who died in infancy. When her son Darrell was born in 1953, she gave up the mail route and moved to the Yaak area, where her husband and his brother built a permanent sawmill.
When Darrell was three, Bud left the area, and the couple were divorced in 1958. Emily decided to go back to teaching. She received her certificate at the University of Montana-Missoula and taught one year in Warland, one in Trego, where Darrell started school, and the following years in Whitefish, where she rented a house that she later purchased. Her son graduated from Whitefish High in 1972 and joined the Coast Guard. He died in 1982 in a serious accident.
Emily spent 29 years teaching in Lincoln and Flathead counties. Five years, in all eight grades, were in rural schools. She taught at Somers for 19 years, the last 10 teaching middle school math and reading.
Emily belonged to Delta Kappa Gamma Society, Lambda Chapter since 1968. She served two years as corresponding secretary and 16 as treasurer. She belonged to a bridge club, Fortnightly Study Club, Northwest Montana Retired Teachers, and Christ Lutheran Church, which she was involved in actively.
She enjoyed traveling and visited most states. Travels took her to the Holy Lands, Greece, Israel, Egypt, Turkey and several Mediterranean islands. She also took trips on the Mississippi Queen, to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Branson, Opryland in Nashville, and several mystery trips and a bus tour trip to Victoria, B.C.
She enjoyed hiking, golfing, reading, sewing and card playing. When her son was young, she was active in Boy Scouts and the swim team, in which he excelled. Emily survived several surgeries, including a triple open heart surgery in 1989. In 1996, problems called for several eye surgeries.
Through all the hardships, she lived her faith and was a dedicated educator, mother and friend. She was proud of the Sterba family developing the farmland in the Flathead. One of her last wishes was to keep this land as it is for years to come.
Emily had made lifetime friends with people whom she met on trips, students that she taught, and groups that she joined. Hundreds of cards and letters she received and kept through the years are testimonies to her loving, generous, out-reaching nature.
A graveside service will be held at C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008 (today) at 1:30 p.m., with Pastor Bent of Christ Lutheran Church officiating.
Memorials may be sent to Christ Lutheran Church, 5150 River Lakes Parkway, Whitefish MT 59937 or WOTM, 230 West 10th Street, Whitefish MT 59937.