May Marie Vance, 68
May Marie Vance, 68, passed away Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 25, 2004, at Healthcenter Northwest in Kalispell after a courageous bout with scleroderma (CREST disease).
May was born June 30, 1936, in La Plata, N.M., to Marion Park and Muriel Leora (Kinnick) Coverdell. The family moved to Montana in 1946.
May finished Flathead High School in 1953. Then, on Aug. 1, 1953, she married Kenneth Lloyd Vance, the son of Julius (Jack) and Tillie (Henkie) Vance of Kalispell.
Ken and May started a family right away, but Ken was shipped out to Virginia with the U.S. Army in April 1954. May joined him in Virginia, but Kenneth was sent to Korea before the baby was born. After Richard Lee's birth in September, she returned to Montana.
In February 1956, Kenneth was returned to his family from military service. Gerald (Jerry) Wayne was born in October 1956 while they were living in Kalispell. In 1957, Ken and May moved to the country near Somers, where they raised the family. Cindy was born to them in March 1963. When Ken retired from the Daily Inter Lake in 1989, they moved to the Swan Valley.
May loved many things in her life. She enjoyed fishing, camping, and six grandkids. She loved her family and built an extensive genealogical record of the families of her life. May was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother and friend who will surely be missed by all who knew her.
May was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Peggy Ann Coverdell; and her brothers, Elwood Vern "Jack" Coverdell, Arell LeRoy Coverdell and Robert "Bob" Eugene Coverdell.
May is survived by her husband, Kenneth Lloyd Vance; her children, Richard and wife Sylvia of Georgia, Gerald and wife Mary of Condon, and Cindy and husband Bob Otten of Kalispell; a brother, Donald Coverdell, and girlfriend Deana E. Roe; six grandchildren, Brandy Nelson, Austin Allen Vance, Kandy Ray Vance, Erica June Vance, Aaron Lee Vance and Zachary Ryan Vance; and numerous nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be sent to the Scleroderma Foundation, Attn: Donations, 12 Kent Way Suite 101, Byfield, MA 01922. The organization's web page is www.scleroderma.org.
Graveside services were held Monday, Nov. 29, at Glacier Memorial Gardens by Buffalo Hill Funeral Home.
This paid obituary is being run again at the request of the family.