Obituary: Dorothy D. Tode

Dorothy Dale Tode was born March 20,

1920, in Ryegate, the youngest of three children born to Andrew and

Emma Dale, homesteaders on the East Bench overlooking the

Musselshell River. She died peacefully Sunday, March 13, 2011, at

age 90.

Her life was one of friendship and

devotion to family.

She attended elementary school in a

one-room schoolhouse her father helped to build on the East Bench,

then attending Ryegate High School and graduating in 1938. Until

death, she remained friends with many of her classmates.

After graduation, she raised bum lambs

to pay for beauty school in Billings, later opening her own shop in

Harlowton. Although she held various jobs throughout her life,

including telephone operator and payroll clerk for the Helena

School District, she continued to fix hair late into life.

Dorothy met Charles Andrew Tode when

they were in high school, and their love blossomed through the

letters they exchanged after Charles was drafted into the US Army

in 1941. The couple married in Harlowton on Aug. 14, 1942 while

Charles was on a furlough. That evening, he received a telegram

with orders to report immediately for duty. He disregarded the

orders and spent a few precious days with Dorothy before reporting

for duty a week late.

After his initial training, Dorothy

followed Charles to various stations throughout the United States

as he trained troops for WWII. She “batched” with other officers’

wives, staying in numerous boarding houses and developing lifelong

friends as she went. Charles was deployed to the Pacific Theater in

1945, the same year their first son Dennis was born.

He returned home safely a year later,

and Dorothy and Charles moved to Bozeman, where Charles attended

college. Their second son, Ross, was born in 1949. The couple

settled in Helena, after Charles went to work as an accountant for

the Montana Highway Department. Jess, their third son, surprised

them in 1957.

The family lived for years on Helena’s

west side, where Dorothy and Charles built many lasting friendships

with their neighbors. In those early years, she helped to form a

sewing club, meeting regularly with friends from the club until her

death.

Dorothy had a passion for gardening and

her rows of showy peonies stopped traffic on Cannon Street, where

the family lived. Her dinner-plate sized dahlias were known around

the Kenwood neighborhood, and the bulbs were prized at Kessler

School PTA fundraisers. Later, when she and Charles retired to the

East Shore of Flathead Lake in 1978, her Gloriosa and Shasta

daisies framed their home on the hill above a small cherry and

apple orchard. In her yard, Dorothy created Fairy Land, a

collection of second-hand dolls and toys arranged to depict nursery

rhymes. At first, the little collection was for the entertainment

of her grandchildren, but as it grew, word of Dorothy’s Fairy Land

spread, and over the years, she welcomed visitors from all over the

world. Each visitor left with a small stone, painted to look like a

ladybug.

Dorothy and Charles returned to Helena

in 1993 to be near family and friends. The ladybug tradition

followed, and Dorothy often scattered ladybugs in the playground in

Cherry Park behind their home. She would watch from her kitchen

window as delighted as the children who discovered them.

Dorothy passed the Flathead’s long

winters making soft-sculpture dolls. Over the years she made more

than 350 dolls and gave each one away. Dorothy’s sister Alice got

her quilting about that time, and like her dolls, she made hundreds

and gave them all away. Dorothy gave most of her baby quilts to

local charities or to friends expecting a child or grandchild. She

said her quilts were never perfect, but always made with love.

Dorothy and Charles celebrated 65 years

of marriage before Charles died in 2007. Dorothy moved to Hunters

Pointe, where she made many dear friends in the three years she was

there. Her ladybugs will, no doubt, continue to populate Hunters

Pointe for years to come.

Survivors include Dorothy’s sister,

Alice Sundquist of Salt Lake City, and son, Dennis Todd, and his

wife, Jill Liberty in Eugene, Ore., and Dennis’ two children, Miles

and Sandy; son, Ross, and his wife, Diane, in Helena and their four

children, Laura, Andrew, Regina and Jill; and son, Jess, in Bozeman

as well as six great-grandchildren. Survivors also include

Dorothy’s nephew Maurice Dale and his wife Lois of Bigfork.

Dorothy kept a daily journal for the

majority of her adult life, and she recorded with gratefulness the

blessings of friends, family and a life well lived.

Dorothy did not want a funeral, and no

services are planned. Cremation has taken place.