Grace E. 'Dolly' Lincoln

On Monday, July 16, 2007, Grace E. "Dolly" Lincoln, 83, of Lakeside, passed away at the Health Center Northwest facility under hospice care after a three-year battle with cancer. Because of a snowstorm, Dolly was born June 10, 1924, at her family's homestead, 855 Conrad Drive, in Kalispell while the doctor was trying to get there.

Dolly was a registered nurse who graduated from St. Luke's Hospital in Spokane. After graduation, she stayed on at St Luke's as a floor supervisor. While working at St. Luke's, as Dolly Smith, she came home for a two-week vacation and became reacquainted with a returning Kalispell World War II B-17 pilot and high-school friend named Bob Lincoln.

Bob followed her to Spokane and, after a three-month romance, they were married in Kalispell in 1945. They returned to Spokane to begin Bob's accounting education at Gonzaga, which he concluded in Missoula at the University of Montana. While in Missoula, Dolly worked at the Community Hospital.

In 1949, Bob and Dolly moved home to Kalispell for good. During her career in Kalispell, she and Sister Loyola started the first surgical recovery room at Kalispell Hospital on Fourth Avenue East. She also worked as a registered nurse and office manager for a wonderful person, Dr. Benke, until 1979. Dolly was a hospice volunteered for a year and a half after her retirement. Dolly loved her career as a nurse.

Dolly also loved being a mother and raised their two sons, Bill and Bob, on Woodland Avenue. Bob and Dolly loved entertaining and enjoying time with friends at the card table or on Flathead Lake.

In 1970, they bought the Somers community center, Del's Bar, and enjoyed the extended family they gained. They moved to Flathead Lake in 1972. Their son Bob joined the family business and extended the family tree with grandchildren, Tanis and Bobby.

In the early 1980s, their son Bill returned to the Flathead Valley from his career in education.

Bob and Dolly's retirement brought a cadre of new friends and good times from Flathead Lake to El Centro, Calif. After Bob's passing, Dolly expanded her travels from Ireland to Costa Rica with her family and several special friends. Dolly always found the silver lining and lead the way to the best of all times.

Dolly was preceded in death by her husband of 50-plus years, Robert E. "Bob" Lincoln; her "wonderful Irish gentleman" father, William A. Smith; and her "lovely" beautician mother, Grace Macomber.

She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, William T. and Kari Lincoln of Lakeside, Robert C. "Bob" and Tami Lincoln of Somers; grandchildren, Tanis and Nikia Hernandez of Libby, and Robert W. "Bobby" Lincoln and Beth of Somers; stepgrandchildren, Andy and Lisa Kelly of Kalispell, and Scott and Dawn Kelly of Lemmon, S.D.; and great-grandchildren, Morgan, Kuger and Klae; and special friends who always called Dolly "Mom," her traveling partners from Canada, and many of her bridge partners.

Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, July 23, at Johnson Mortuary chapel, with burial afterward at C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery. A reception will be held at 4 p.m. at the Somers Fire Hall.

If you wish to send a memorial please send them to hospice or the Lakeside QRU.