Wit and Wisdom: At 100 Dorothy Fisher is still quick with a joke and a smile

A Coram woman will see a milestone this week.

Dorothy (Tonnar) Fisher will turn 100, just as spry and full of humor as ever.

Fisher was born in Spokane, Washington and moved to Butte when she was 12 with her family. Her father, Cy Tonner, was a miner at the time and so was she.

“I was a miner, too,” she recalled. “I worked in the shaft.”

They mined for gold, but never hit it big.

“We didn’t make much money,” she laughed.

She would spent her formative years in the Butte area. It was the Great Depression and times were tough. She recalled living in a wall tent up in the mountains near Deer Lodge while her father scrounged for work. The local Sheriff ended up going in with a horse party and bringing them out. They had to stay in the jail because there was no place else to go until their father came and got them.

“I never felt so sorry for my mother in my whole life,” she recalled.

But things would get better. When she was 18 she spied a gorgeous young man with robin-blue eyes working on a roof.

“I’m going to marry him,” she recalled thinking. And she did. His name was Ray Fisher and after his service in the Army, they moved “up to this beautiful canyon,” in 1945 and eventually found a house in Coram.

Ray was a miner early in life, then a trucker, hauling grain from eastern Montana. He hauled logs as well.

Fisher has lived in the same house now for 71 years.

She had five children, Ray, Marvin, Peggy, Patsy and Bob. Today she has 13 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and eight great-great grandchildren.

Many of them live in the valley today.

Her father also moved to the valley and started the Coram Lumber Company. His name changed as well, through no devices of his own.

“The bank changed Tonnar to Tonner, so he just left it,” she said.

Tonner would go on to be a distinguished businessman and politician, serving in the state Legislature. He was featured in the Hungry Horse News on many occasions.

Fisher was busy raising her family and at the time, all the neighbors had kids as well.

“We took care of each others kids,” she said. No one had a babysitter.

She volunteered for a host of civic organizations, including the Parent-Teacher Association, the Ladies Aide, The Coram-West Glacier Fire Department, and the Booster Club, just to name a few.

“When they saw me coming, they knew I was looking for a donation,” she said.

And the donations went to good use. One fundraiser made sure every kid in school had health insurance. One girl was in a horrible wreck, but her hospitals bills were paid.

People took care of each other back then, though there was one place she never went: church.

“I never went to church,” she said with a laugh.

She recalled volunteering for the school election judging one year. They sent her up to West Glacier.

“They tried to get rid of me,” she said.

She knew the rules that each election had to have so many judges watching the ballots, and she wasn’t going anywhere.

“I just sat there,” she laughed. “They were a snooty bunch up there!”

She recalled the flood of 1964, which, in essence, left them marooned in Coram until bridges could be put back in place and roads repaired. The rivers had flooded the roads above Coram and below Coram. For awhile there, there was no way out.

“Eventually you could go up into Glacier Park and out the North Fork Road,” she said.

She took her camera and recorded it to motion picture films. The family had the movies transferred to DVDs recently.

“I got a picture of the railroad tunnel (on the Middle Fork) full of water,” she said.

Fisher also helped the government out during the Cold War as a ground observer. If she saw an airplane fly overhead, she would rush inside and call in the make and model to the Air Force in Great Falls.

Back then, phones were party lines, meaning people shared the same phone line. She’d pick up the phone and yell for them to get off the line.

“Aircraft flash,” she’d say. “Aircraft flash.”

Once the line was open, she’d make her call and her report. She still has her service pins today.

And her advice for life longevity?

“The last few years I figured you’ve got to love yourself,” she said. “I am what I am.”

The family is hosting a birthday party for Dorothy at the Karen Fisher residence in Coram at 4 p.m. April 9. To get there, drive through the Glacier Highline. The house is in the back.