Arvelva Hoyt

Arvelva Blanche (Howell) Hoyt, 98, way with her daughter Barbara and niece Mary by her side on April 3, 2014, at Immanuel Lutheran Home in Kalispell.

She was born July 8, 1915, at Columbia Falls, the fifth of 11 children born to Elmer C. and Minnie M. (Johnston) Howell.  

Her grandparents were early settlers in the Deer Park community, southeast of Columbia Falls. Reuben S. Johnston arrived from the Gallatin Valley in 1884, and Henry H. Howell came from Illinois in 1894.

Blanche and nine of her siblings attended Deer Park School and she attended Flathead County High School.

She went to Big Arm to help her older sister Della and met Edward E. Hoyt. They were married Dec. 9, 1933. They had two children, Ross and Barbara. They divorced in 1972.

In 1969, Blanche and her 13-year-old niece Mary Johns moved to Kalispell to live with her daughter. She attended drivers' education classes at Flathead Valley Community College and obtained her driver's license at age 54. She got a job as a nurse's aide at the Flathead County Nursing Home where she worked until retiring in 1978.

She is survived by her son Ross Hoyt and wife Darline, of Big Arm; daughter Barbara Hoyt, of Kalispell; sisters Iva Mae Stryker, of Columbia Falls, and Jessie Wunderlich, of Valier; two grandchildren; three great grandchildren; and numerous nieces and other relatives.

A family gathering to celebrate Blanche's life will take place in July, 2014 at Big Arm.

Donations in her honor may be given to the charity of choice.