Roberta (Hume) Field Nutting

Roberta (Hume) Field Nutting died of natural causes Jan. 30, 2007, four days before her 88th birthday.

Roberta was born in Kalispell on Feb. 3, 1919, the 14th child born to Robert and Hannah (Brockton) Hume, early pioneers in the Kalispell area.

She graduated from Flathead County High School and married Ronald Keen Field of Whitefish in 1936. They raised three children primarily in Denton, where he was manager of Denton Flying Service.

In the late '50s, Roberta and Ronnie built a bowling alley in Denton, and Roberta operated the restaurant for seven years. They were moving the bowling alley to Eureka in 1965 when Ronnie suffered a fatal heart attack at his parent's home in Whitefish. She operated this bowling alley until the early '70s.

Roberta married Art Nutting of Eureka in 1970. As an active senior-citizen advocate, she worked thousands of hours for Legacy Legislature and was named Senior Citizen of the Year. Art died in 1993, and Roberta eventually moved back to the Kalispell area and settled in Bigfork in 1999.

Surviving children include: sons, Richard N. Field of Bigfork, and Dwight Keen and Beth Field of Fernie, British Columbia; and daughter, Bobbin K., and Ken Maki of Belt. Catherine Brownlow of Helena is the sole survivor of Bert's 13 siblings. Other survivors include nine grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Her love of the land, flowers and nature remained with her all her life. She planted trees, landscaped her yard and beautified her surroundings until the auto-immune disease, myasthenia gravis, so weakened her body she could not work outside.

Her remains have been cremated, and a service will be held at a later date with burial in the Whitefish cemetery near her beloved Ronnie.