Seniors get the royal treatment

With great heraldry and ceremony, some special seniors around the valley got the royal treatment last week with the crowning of Whitefish Winter Carnival senior kings and queens.

At the Whitefish Community Center, the Golden Agers cast their ballots for Shirlee Yeats and Dayle Vondal to reign as king and queen for 2010. Their coronation was held Friday at the community center.

Yeats, a Whitefish native, was the youngest of four sisters. During her career, she worked at Snappy Food and the Flathead County Treasurer’s Office and also raised three sons and a daughter with her husband, Bill.

Yeats enjoys camping, fishing and traveling and attending school activities of her family. She is a member of the VFW Auxiliary, Women of the Moose and the Razzy Jazzy Red Hats.

She volunteers as kitchen crew for Meals on Wheels, helping serve the congregate meals. Yeats shares her cooking skills by baking rolls for Moose dinners and serving pie once a month at a local nursing home.

Starting with the Great Northern Railway, Vondal put in 41 years of service with the railroad as a telegrapher clerk on the Spokane to Browning route. He has been married to his wife, Reba, for 51 years.

Residents of Happy Valley, the couple have two children, two grandchildren and one great grandchild. Vondal puts in many volunteer hours at Whitefish Food Bank, North Valley Hospital, the Golden Agers and as a Meals on Wheels driver.

At Buffalo Hill Terrace, residents voted for Don and Jo Siblerud as their king and queen. Don grew up in the Flathead and met Jo while working in Alaska. The couple moved permanently back to the valley in 1963 when Don went to work for Flathead Electric Cooperative.

They have a son Paul and daughter Marcia. For years, they lived in Creston where they helped their neighbors Bob and Rowena Gatiss keep the well-known Gatiss Gardens which attracted hundreds of visitors each year.

Their son Paul and his wife, Elizabeth, now maintain those gardens. Jo and Don have three grandchildren.

At coronation ceremonies at The Springs at Whitefish, Cora Ellen Kerestes and Jim Motichka were crowned senior king and queen.

Kerestes grew up in Whitefish and graduated from high school in 1942 and took a job at age 17 with the War Department in Washington, D.C. After transferring with her job to New Jersey, she met her husband, Albert.

The two married in Whitefish and lived there for all of their 61 years of marriage. Kerestes and her husband loved square dancing and camping. They have a son Glenwood, a granddaughter and two great-granddaughters.

Motichka, affectionately known as “trouble,” was born and raised on a farm in Columbia Falls. He met his wife, Alice, at a barn dance while on leave from boot camp and they married in 1949.

He and Alice had two sons, Jack and Jim. Motichka worked several jobs including at a sawmill, logging and welding at Columbia Falls Aluminum Plant. He and Alice built and then  operated Rest a Day Campground until 1978.

Motichka is proud of helping start the Evergreen Fire Department in 1952.

In retirement, he has become well-known at The Springs for his sense of humor and love of cards.

At Whitefish Care and Rehab (formerly Colonial Manor), Veda Engebretson and Prent Hill reign as queen and king this year.

Engebretson, a native of Columbia Falls, was married to a railroader and raised two sons and a daughter. She enjoyed her role as a homemaker and was famous for making cinnamon rolls, collecting bells and writing poetry, and her love of traveling.

Engebretson now enjoys Western music, Bingo, crossword puzzles, eating out and shopping.

Hill was raised in Minneapolis where he was married and worked in hardware sales for years. He played hockey in younger days and remains athletic, still hitting the ball hard at baseball games.

Hill is a devoted Vikings football fan and enjoys singing, eating out, drives, television and movies.

Mary Grace Houlberg and Rudy Fry round out the Flathead Valley royalty as the queen and king selected this year at the Columbia Falls Montana Veterans Home. Both are World War II veterans.

Houlberg enlisted in 1943 and served until 1945. She activated again and served during the Korean War from 1953 to 1956. Houlberg met her husband, Poul, at an NCO club and they married in 1955.

At the vets home, Houlberg enjoys Bingo, manicures, ladies luncheons and reading.

Fry enlisted in the Navy in 1942 as a shipfitter and he served until 1945. He enlisted in the Army in 1950 and mostly trained recruits. He retired from the reserves in 1970.

He moved houses for 22 years. Fry got married to his wife, Arlene, in 1997 after they met at the Eagles Club in Kalispell in 1995. Fry also enjoys Bingo, crafts, wheelchair dancing, funny movies and going out to lunch.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.