Lois Olive (Urban) Stevens 82

Lois O. Urban Stevens, 82, died peacefully surrounded by her family on Tuesday, May 29, 2007. Lois was born Sept. 2, 1924, on the family homestead in Epping, N.D., the seventh of 10 children born to Evangeline (Kingston) and Rudolf A. Urban. She came to the Flathead Valley when she was 16 to live with her Aunt Hattie and Uncle Alva Ulrich in Somers. She graduated from Flathead County High School in 1942 with high honors.

She worked for Mountain States Power after graduation.

She married Lloyd R. Stevens on July 25, 1942, in Polson. He had been a bus driver for her uncle.

They started married life in Somers where she raised big gardens and three kids. After a year in Malta, they returned to the Flathead and settled in Evergreen, in 1952, adding three more children to the family.

Lois continued raising big gardens and preserving the harvests.

She participated in Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, 4-H and Peewee Baseball with her children. She also expected her children to excel in school.

She helped with the Evergreen school census for several years before becoming a volunteer listener in the oral reading program at the Evergreen Junior High. Later she accepted an aide position in the primary grades, retiring in 1984.

Lois will be remembered for her dedication to her family and great gardens, beautiful flowers and homemade bread. She made the best potato salad, which we all enjoyed. She loved reading and doing crossword puzzles. Lois taught herself to play the piano. She collected glassware of all sorts and loved finding new pieces at the many yard sales that she and her husband frequented.

Despite the many years she lived in the Flathead Lois never lost her love of the prairie.

She was preceded in death by her parents; sisters, Pearl, Elsie, Della, and two sisters Agnes and Alice, in infancy; and brothers, Cecil and Jesse.

Lois is survived by her husband, Lloyd, at the family home in Evergreen; two brothers, Robert Urban and wife, Marian, of Oklahoma, and Lawrence Urban on the family farm in North Dakota. She is also survived by three daughters, Phyllis and Tex Manus of Evergreen, Wanda and Jim Taylor of Polson, and Juanita and Don Evans of Libby; three sons, Phillip and Maurreen of Ogden, Utah, Warren of Los Angeles, and Clifford and Laurie of Rockton, Ill.; 27 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren.

There will be a celebration of her life 1 p.m. Monday, June 4, at the Moose Lodge in Evergreen after a family graveside service.