Marion Callahan Anderson, 96
Marion Callahan Anderson, 96, died of natural causes July 24, 2008, in her west shore home on Flathead Lake. She was born Sept. 12, 1911, in Basin, and raised, along with six siblings, in Butte by Cal and Anna Callahan.
Marion graduated from Butte Central High School in Butte. She excelled in sports, including swimming, speed skating and tennis. At the age of 15, she swam the length of Georgetown Lake, the first female to do so. As the Helena Independent noted, the feat had only been attempted previously by a small number of professional swimmers.
She graduated from the University of Montana in 1932, and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
She continued with graduate work at the University of Minnesota, and then took a job in Kalispell as the regional head of social services, an area suffering badly from the Great Depression. The work was long and challenging, but on summer weekends she was able to ride horses throughout Glacier Park, from camps to chalets to hotels, several of which no longer exist. In winter, she was among the very first to ski Big Mountain, climbing on skis from the valley to the peak.
She married Charles B. Anderson in Butte, in 1944, and they settled in Great Falls, after a car honeymoon through Mexico, the first of more than a hundred countries they visited together. They eventually had three daughters, Leslie, Taaffecq and Sue.
The couple moved to Minnesota in 1948 as part of Charlie's employment with General Mills. They happily returned to Great Falls in 1953 to start their own business, the Anderson Grain Co. They later founded the Anderson-Elerding travel agency, mostly a plan by the ever-cagey Charlie to facilitate their own world travels, but they soon had four agencies around the state. Marion was an integral part of the business, and continued to work in it even after it was sold. They led many remarkable tours, including — in the 1970s — a group of Montana ranchers on one of the first tours permitted in China since the 1940s. Their last trips, in their 80s, included Kalimantan (Borneo), Yemen, and a trip down the Amazon, where they slept on the open deck of the aged boat.
Marion and Charlie and the family spent many cherished summer days at the family cabin — really an old sheepherder's cabin — above Gibson reservoir on the edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. They later built a cabin on the west shore of Flathead Lake and have happily gathered children, grandchildren, and their many friends for the last 30 years.
Marion was active in the Junior League, and a longtime member of the Meadow Lark Country Club. She was an avid supporter of the Great Falls Symphony, the C.M. Russell Museum and the University of Great Falls. She would appreciate any support you might offer to these institutions.
After she was felled by a stroke three years ago, Marion lived in the San Francisco Bay area with her daughter Sue, but always returned to the cabin for the summer. It was there, the place she loved best, that she died. Marion was a wife, mother, adventurer, businesswoman, world traveler and wonderful friend.
She was predeceased by her parents and siblings; her remarkable husband, Charlie; her daughter, Taafee; and all too many friends.
She is survived by two daughters, Leslie Distad of Minneapolis, and Sue Anderson of El Cerrito, Calif.; son-in-law, Jerry Messec, of Tallahassee, Fla.; grandchildren, Eric Distad, Jonathan Distad, Marne Distad, Brie Anderson-Feldman, Lily Anderson-Messec and Ashley Anderson-Messec; and great-grandchild, Charles Distad.
Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, at the University of Great Falls Chapel, followed by a reception at the C.M. Russell Museum.
Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home and Crematory is caring for Marion's family. You are invited to go to www.jgfuneralhome.com to offer condolences and sign Marion's guest book.