Cecelia Jacobson Burham Matelich, 79

Cecelia Jacobson Burham Matelich, 79, died Tuesday, July 5, 2005, at the Village Health Care Center in Missoula.

She was born to Christine and Jacob Jacobson on May 11, 1926, on the family homestead outside Flaxville. Despite the hardships of the Depression years, she fondly recalled her school days, friendships and loving family from the prairie. Of special note was her time as a drum majorette and baton twirler for the high-school band.

After graduation and attending Concordia College, she moved to Des Moines, Iowa, to work as a secretary.

In 1948, she met and married Arlo Burham. After having two sons in Iowa, they brought their young family back to Montana, settling in Kalispell in 1955. Together they ran a collection agency and continued to be very active, involved parents.

Arlo took a job with the county, and the family moved to Missoula in 1966. The next year, she found the job she would treasure for 20 years as the secretary to the athletic director at University of Montana. When her husband died suddenly in 1969, the young widow poured all her energy into her boys and mothering all the athletes at the university. It was a few of these young men from Hawaii who introduced her to another of her great loves - the Islands.

In 1993, she married Eugene Matelich on the island of Kauai. Mercifully, they enjoyed many years of travel, dancing, golf and cheering for her beloved Grizzlies before her health began to fail.

Cela was preceded in death by her parents; her first husband, Arlo Burham; her sister, Agnes Lorentzen; her brother, Irvin Jacobson; and her niece, Katherine (Jacobson) Blair.

She is survived by her sister, Ellen Holmen, of Fargo, N.D.; her brother, John Jacobson, of Flaxville; her sons and their families, Kevin and Jeannie (Yovetich) Burham, and their three sons, Ty, Micah and Nicholas, of the Seattle area; Greg and Leslie (Young) Burham and their three children, Jon, Anna and Jacob, all of Missoula; and her husband, Gene Matelich; and a host of warm and wonderful stepchildren and stepgrandchildren.

All who knew Cela will always remember her kind heart and gentle spirit. Even toward the end, when her discomfort was extreme, she never had a harsh word for anyone.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. today, July 8, at lmmanuel Lutheran Church, 830 South Ave. W., in Missoula. A reception and light lunch will be afterward at the church. Her final resting place will be in a family plot by Pleasant Prairie Lutheran Church near the original family homestead.

"Aloha, and Godspeed, Super Cel."

The family suggests memorials to Youth Homes Inc. (formerly Missoula Youth Homes Inc.) or the Grizzly Athletic Association.