Lenore Simons

Lenore Simons

Longtime Whitefish resident Lenore “Nonie” Simons died peacefully at home on Jan. 15, 2011.

Nonie was born in Villard, Minn., on May 18, 1910, on a farm where her father’s farm. Nonie finished school at St. Ben’s Academy in St. Cloud, Minn., as valedictorian.

After graduation, Nonie went to New York City where she worked for the Irving Trust Co. until 1931 when she was hired by the Girl Scouts of America to work as secretary to Tess Carter, head of the organization.

While at the Girl Scouts, she had wonderful adventures and loved the experiences of meeting many famous people of the day, including President Hoover’s wife Lou, who is one of the people credited with starting the Girl Scouts of America. She also met and worked with the wife of President Harding and met Eleanor Roosevelt.

On a summer vacation in Minnesota, Nonie met and married Richard “Dick” Simons. Dick taught and coached in several towns in Minnesota before they relocated to Whitefish.

After having four children, Nonie returned to the working world in 1958. She worked at the John B Simons Hospital, eventually handling insurance, billing and then Medicare when it started in 1964. Nonie began typing medical records when doctors began using a dictaphone to record their medical records in the mid 1960s. When she retired from the hospital, renamed North valley Hospital, she began working for the Whitefish Clinic. She retired from this job in 1985.

She is preceded in death by her husband Dick Simons, her mother and father, two brothers and one sister.

She is survived by children Molly Young and husband Mert, Joanie Sorensen and husband Scott, Henry and wife Jackie Simons, and Barbara Simons; eight grandchildren; and six great grandchildren.

Funeral services were held at St. Charles Catholic Church on Jan. 20, 2011.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the mission at Los Amigos in Chimbote, Peru, or Soroptimist International of Whitefish.