Mona Lee Ellsworth Lytle, 89
Mona Lee Ellsworth Lytle "passed peacefully to heaven" on Friday, May 29, 2009, at the Immanuel Lutheran Home. Mona was born on March 1, 1920, in Great Falls, the second child of Charles and Ina (Washburn) Spence.
Mona was born at home due to the flu epidemic that was at its peak in Montana at the time. Mona grew up in Lewistown, where her father managed the Pacific Fruit and Produce Company, and moved with her family to Grand Junction, Colo., for her high school years. There she played the alto saxophone in the high school band, and met her first love, Paul Ellsworth, whom she married following high school. Mona and Paul, along with Paul's parents and brother and sister-in-law, ranched the Ellsworth family cattle and sheep ranch high in the Colorado Rockies near Glenwood Springs for many years.
Although they did not have children, Mona was very involved in the raising of Paul's two nieces and a nephew, and she nurtured many baby animals in this remote and somewhat primitive setting. Her wisdom and tenderness toward all living creatures continued to her very last day, although in her last years most of the nurturing was poured on her stuffed animals that were always with her.
In approximately 1965, the family sold the ranch, and Mona and Paul moved to Lakeside, where they purchased some acreage and were wonderful stewards of their land, working side by side to thin timber and build roads, an apartment building and five mobile-home lots.
Mona again was a second mom, this time to her sister's two children, and looked after her mother, doing daily care for her during her last years. Mona was the best one to ask about baking, canning, growing fruit, or anything to do with animals, wild or tame. She raised baby kittens on bottles, rescued orphaned fawns, and nursed birds with broken wings back to health when they hit her windows.
Paul was stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease in his 50s, and the couple became even closer partners, continuing to do the road maintenance and other tasks with amazing teamwork and creativity, until Paul's death in 1982.
A few years later, Mona married Cecil "Pete" Lytle, and supported him through open heart surgery a short time later, and encouraged his interests in gem cutting, hunting and fishing until his death.
In 2005, dementia caused the need for more care than could be provided at home, and Mona moved to the Immanuel Lutheran Home in Kalispell.
Mona was preceded in death by her parents; her older sister, Rose Ann Cox; her younger brother, John R. Spence; her husbands, Paul Ellsworth and Cecil "Pete" Lytle; niece, Becky Hauser; and nephews, Joe Cox and John Spence.
She is survived by her sister-in-law, Betty Spence, from Tacoma, Wash.; two brothers-in-law, Donald and George Ellsworth; nieces, Libby Moothart and Boyd of Lakeside, Debbie Bledsoe and Paul of Spanaway, Wash., Margie DeMoss and Mel of Texas, and Jackie King and Zane of New Mexico; nephew, Charles Ellsworth; great-nieces, Amanda Moothart of Lakeside, and Jamie Morris of Roy, Wash.; and great-nephew, Jason Moothart, of Bullhead City, Ariz. She is also survived by Tim, Jan, Jarret and Ian Twamley of Lakeside, who were faithful partners for many years in the care of her property, and whom she considered her family.
Memorial services for Mona will be held in July and will be announced at a later date.
In honor of Mona's two greatest interests, music and animals, memorials may be given to Somers School District, 315 School Addition Road, Somers, MT, to provide instruments or music for the band program; or to Human Therapy on Horseback, P.O. Box 5565, Kalispell, MT 59903.
Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home is caring for Mona's family. You are invited to go to www.jgfuneralhome.com to offer condolences and sign Mona's guest book.