Emma Lou Fredrickson, 82
Emma Lou Fredrickson, 82, passed away Friday, July 8, 2005, at the Kalispell Regional Hospital of natural causes.
Emma was born June 18, 1923, in Enderlin, N.D., to Walter and Ellen Kaber. The Kaber family moved to Whitefish in 1935. Emma attended school in Whitefish and graduated from high school in 1941.
She went on to college at Northern College in Havre and became a teacher. She taught school in Brockton, Mont., and Markus, Wash. In Markus, she met and married Bert E. Fredrickson, and they were married at the Hitch'n Post in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, on June 5, 1948.
She started teaching in Whitefish in 1962, where she taught the subjects of English and literature. She went back to school at the University of Montana and received her master's degree in library science. She then became librarian at the Whitefish Junior High and later the Whitefish High School. She retired in 1994.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Bert; brothers, Marvin and Louis Kaber; and sister, Lois Hull.
Emma Lou loved to teach. Teaching students not how to read but how to love reading was her passion.
Emma Lou is survived by her daughter, Mary Ellen Harker, in Kalispell; daughter, Thea Lou Roach and son-in-law, Jay, in Columbia Falls; son, Dirk David Fredrickson, in Alamosa, Colo.; a brother, Harvey Kaber, in Laurel; a brother, Larry Kaber and Charlotte, in Kalispell; grandchildren, Lisa, Amie, Jamie and Jackie Harker, Jason, Benjamin, Samuel, Peter Umbriaco, Cassie, Erin and Dane Fredrickson; 10 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
For the last three years, she had been cared for by her granddaughter-in-law, Mary Umbriaco.
There will be a memorial celebration of Emma Lou's life at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Austin Funeral Home in Whitefish, with the Rev. John Bent officiating.Burial will be afterward at the Whitefish City Cemetery.
The family suggests that memorials be made to the Whitefish City Library in Whitefish.
This paid obituary is being run again at the request of the family.