Helena Pannell Blend, 88

Helena Pannell Blend, 88, of Bigfork, died Friday, Dec. 10, 2004, in Phoenix.

Helena was born in Choteau on Jan. 1, 1916. She grew up on her parents', Mary E. and John E. Sullivan, sheep ranch near Pendroy. She loved to ride horses everyday while on the ranch. She attended the Ursuline Academy in Great Falls during high school and graduated from the University of Minnesota.

In 1939 she married James B. Pannell. She bought and sold many properties during her lifetime. An active volunteer, she was involved in PTA, Red Cross and Junior League and worked hard in the Great Falls community.

Helena and Jim raised four children in Great Falls. Jim was an architect until 1957 when he and Helena built the Mid-Town Motel and later, Smitty's Pancake House, which they owned and operated until 1970 when they retired.

After Jim's death in 1978, she married Carroll Blend. She and Carroll traveled all over the world while living in Great Falls, Bigfork and Phoenix.

Helena was a wonderful, hard-working mom and grandmother to her children and grandchildren, making brownies for all occasions, bragging about sleeping in a prostitute's bed that she bought second-hand in Butte, and telling everyone her first name was Helena, emphasis on the "Hell." She had requested the song, "As the Saints Go Marching In," be sung at her funeral Mass. She was a fun-loving person and "her memory will remain in our hearts and thoughts forever."

Four children, James Pannell of Great Falls, John Pannell of Duxbury, Mass., Marylane Pannell of Kalispell, and Joan Perrins of Gilbert, Ariz.; a stepson, Carroll Blend, in Bigfork; 10 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren, and many friends survive Helena.

A memorial service will be held in Bigfork at St. Catherine's Catholic Church on Saturday, Jan. 15, at 10 a.m. Cremation has taken place.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donation be made to Hospice.