Billie M. McCrum, 86

Billie M. McCrum, 86, passed away at Kalispell Regional Medical Center on Saturday, April 15, 2006. Billie was born July 8, 1919, in Clay, La., to John Wesley and Jessie Emma Stewart Harden. She was raised in San Antonio, where she graduated from high school and attended beauty school.

Billie married Samuel B. McCrum in 1938.

She worked for the government for about 25 years.

She moved to Spokane, where she went to work for the Spokane School District, developing the teachers center for 10 years.

She was a member of the Eastern Star in Okinawa, Great Falls and Spokane Chapters, and a member of the Lady Shriners and the Ladies of the Nile in Spokane.

She volunteered at the Shriners Burn Center for children in Spokane, and at the Lakeview Care Center in Bigfork and the Art Center.

Billie was a can-do person; she had many skills, including painting, needlework and sewing.

Billie was preceded in death by her parents; and her husband, Samuel McCrum.

She is survived by her daughter, Sandra Hults; stepson, Don Carberry, and his wife, Carol; stepdaughter, Gwen Pollard, and her husband, Jerry, and their children; sister, Anna Beth Hewgley; grandchildren, Samuel B. Hults, Janine Kay Hults and Richard Warren Hults; stepgrandchildren, Heather Bruner and Aaron Carberry; niece, Billie Beth Kretzschmar; and nephews, Richard Hewgley and Warren Hewgley.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. today, Tuesday, April 18, at the Community United Methodist Church in Bigfork, with the Rev. Jan Witman officiating. Burial will take place at the Oak Island Cemetery in San Antonio.

Memorials are requested to the Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, Calif., or the Community Methodist Church in Bigfork.

Buffalo Hill Funeral Home is caring for the family.