Lauretta Kay (Luckey) Simpson, 59

Lauretta Kay (Luckey) Simpson, 59, died Tuesday, July 3, 2007, surrounded by her family at her residence in Kalispell, after fighting with the disease of COPD. She was born in Great Falls on July 12, 1947, the daughter of Lawrence and Josephine (Kneifel) Luckey.

Lauretta was raised in Great Falls, until moving to the Flathead Valley in the early 1960s.

She loved to collect angels of any kind: dolls, figurines and pictures, etc. Her other love was collecting Christmas decorations and early on she loved to dress up for Halloween.

Lauretta was a certified nurses assistant for many years, working in Montana and also in Portland. For the last four or five years of her career, she became a physical therapist assistant, working with the elderly.

Lauretta had also worked as a waitress and bartender. She loved to be around people and enjoyed every job she did. She had to retire from nursing in 2000 because of her illness. She was a homemaker after that and a wonderful wife and mother.

Lauretta was preceded in death by one son shortly after birth; her parents; two aunts, Helen Kneifel and Barbara Cordes; and one brother, Jerry Luckey.

She is survived by her husband, Jack Simpson, of Kalispell; six children - one son, James Sizemore of Kalispell, and five daughters, Kim Donahue of Kalispell, Tori Allison of Kila, Jackie Stamm and Wanda Simpson, both of Billings, and Tina Geldrich of Portland; two brothers, Ken Luckey of Kalispell, and Al Luckey of Stafford, Va.; 18 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Graveside services with an urn burial will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 14, at C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery. There will be no visitation. There will be a potluck after the services at the residence of Jack Simpson.

Johnson Mortuary and Crematory is caring for Lauretta's family.

You are invited to go to www.johnsonmortuary.com to offer condolences and sign Lauretta's guest book.