Stella L. 'Sally' Conner, 86
Stella L. “Sally” Conner, 86, died July 9, 2011, at Brendan House in Kalispell. A memorial/celebration of life service will be held Friday, July 15, at Lawrence Park in Kalispell, beginning at 1 p.m.
The youngest of five sisters, she was born in Byers, Kan., in 1924, to Marvin and Bertha Lathrop. While a young girl, her family moved to Phillips in the Texas Panhandle, in the heart of the Dust Bowl, where her father worked at the giant petroleum refinery.
After graduating from Phillips High School in 1942, she enrolled in the Northwest Texas School of Nursing in Amarillo, Texas, graduating as a registered nurse in 1945 between VE and VJ days.
During those years she marched in a parade with Eleanor Roosevelt, and met James R. Conner, a young airman from northern Minnesota serving at the B-29 base near Amarillo. She married Conner in Bemidji, Minn., in June, 1946, taking their honeymoon on Lake Superior’s storied north shore.
Back in Bemidji, she worked in public health as a school nurse while her husband earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Bemidji State Teachers College. During the early 1950s, a time of great fear of atomic warfare, she was conscripted as a civil defense volunteer, helping run duck-and-cover drills and organizing for the big blast that never came.
Her first child, James Jr., was born in 1947, followed by John in 1949, Bill in 1954, and Kelton in 1955.
In the 1960s she returned to nursing. In 1971, she studied cardiac nursing in Rochester, Minn., becoming certified in cardiac and intensive care nursing.
Her husband, James Conner Sr., died that spring on the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary.
Four years later, her nest empty, she accepted an offer from the hospital in Kalispell, where she worked in a variety of nursing positions for the next 22 years. She enjoyed working nights, quipping she had the right temperament for the job: “I’m not afraid to call a doctor in the middle of his wedding night if that’s what helping a patient requires.”
She retired in 1997 at the age of 72, concluding a 52-year career in nursing that began in a segregated hospital in Texas and ended in a modern health care center in Montana.
During her 14 years of retirement, she tended her cats and flower gardens, hosted friends and relatives, and visited her sisters and sons and their families. Each Thursday she joined her retired friends for lunch at a restaurant in Kalispell, a group informally known as the Thursday Lunch Club. She maintained and initiated the club’s telephone tree until her 85th year, and in a manner any campaign manager would envy.
She was a stalwart supporter of the Saline, Ark., animal shelter founded and run by her sister, Wanda Fern Williams, and contributed heavily to organizations dedicated to treating animals humanely.
She believed in the power of education as only a mother and a woman who escaped poverty through education could, helping her sons and grandchildren with schools and college, and voting for school bonds and levies even when her resources were stretched.
She is survived by an older sister, Doris Tilbury, of Norman, Okla.; sons, James Conner of Kalispell, John and his wife Theresa Conner of Columbia Falls, Bill Conner of Lynnwood, Wash., and Kelton and his wife Carrie Conner of Marysville, Wash.; and by John and Theresa’s children, Charlotte and her husband Darren Dye, and John K. Conner and his wife Hisako (Nancy); Bill’s children, Kylee, and Josh Conner and his wife Stephanie; and Kelly and Carrie’s children, Chris Conner and his wife Crystal, and Ben Conner and his wife Brittany; and by great-grandchildren, Aubrey Dye, Jacob Dye, Baylee Dye, Cian Conner, Tavin Conner, Logan Conner, Hadley Conner and Reiley Conner; and a large extended family.
She was preceded in death by her parents; sisters, Hartense, Wanda Fern, and Bonnie; two brothers, stillborn; and her husband.
Her granddaughter has established a memorial page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/SallyConner.memorial. For additional information, please call James Conner at 249-3780.