Aina L. Dutro, 85

Aina L. Dutro passed away peacefully on Nov. 14, 2011, at Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell.

 She was born in Great Falls on Sept. 8, 1926. She moved with her parents, Ralph and Mildred Parker, to Lewistown, where she attended school at Fergus County High School from 1940 to 1944. 

According to her best friend, Aina worked at several part-time jobs while attending high school. These jobs included working at a local insurance company, the local theater, and as a dance instructor. Due to her love of dance and work for the local theater company, the manager allowed her to use the theater auditorium to provide her lessons and recitals in ballet and tap.

Aina attended Fergus County High during World War II, and those were the years of gas rationing, scrap metal collections, and other critical wartime support provided to support our county's efforts. She is remembered by her friends from those days as a “dark haired beauty,” and as a “caring person, hard working, who loved to dance, and loved her friends (male and female), parents and family.”

Aina received a full academic scholarship to attend Cottey College, a small Liberal Arts College in Missouri. Although she loved her new friends and this opportunity, she was homesick and returned home to attend Montana State University at Bozeman. She was initiated as a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta Sorority at Montana State.

 After college, Aina moved to Great Falls to go to work for a bank. It was at this time that Aina met the one love of her life, George Dutro, at a local dance. 

Aina Lorraine Alm married George F. Dutro in 1949. George worked for Del Monte Foods Corporation, and they started their family with two sons while in Great Falls. In 1955, George took a new position with 3M Company in Omaha, Neb. George and Aina were quite pleased to announce the birth of their daughter, Debra Sue, in 1958. They lived in Omaha until George received a promotion to regional sales manager for 3M Company in 1965, which required a move to Arlington Heights, Ill. They lived in Arlington Heights until George retired from 3M in 1982, and they moved back to Kalispell and their beloved Montana. During the family years in Omaha and Arlington Heights, they would take a family trip and vacation every summer in order to visit Aina’s parents and their beautiful, picturesque log cabin home and property located in the mountains west of Rexford, which the family called “The Kootenai Gardens.” In 1969, the newly built Libby Dam and Lake Koocanusa covered “The Kootenai Gardens.”  

Aina’s passions in life were entertaining her friends and family, volunteering for charitable organizations, playing bridge, and most of all, her love of her family.

Over the years, her volunteer work included help as a founding member of the Methodist Church of the Incarnation in Arlington Heights; election as president of the Arlington Heights Women's Club; countless other volunteer activities; and following her children's participation in sports, school musicals, and school activities. 

Aina had a dynamic personality and excellent organizational management skills which she brought to bear for countless volunteer opportunities over the years in Omaha, Arlington Heights and Kalispell. She loved to play contract bridge, and was always working towards her lifetime Master’s in bridge. Most of all, Aina loved her ever-expanding family as it grew from three children to include four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Aina was preceded in death by her parents, Ralph and Mildred Parker; her brothers, Theodore Alm and Phillip Parker; and her sister, Virginia Amburn.  She was also preceded in death by her loving husband, George F. Dutro.

Aina’s survivors include her son, David R. Dutro, of Kalispell; her son and his wife, Daniel and Barbara Dutro, of Sunnyvale, Calif.; and her daughter, Debra Dutro Prendergast, of Arlington Heights. Her grandchildren include D. Matthew Dutro and his wife Anne of Evanston, Ill., Danny Dutro of Sunnyvale, and Thomas Prendergast and Elizabeth Prendergast of Arlington Heights. Her great-grandchildren include James P. Dutro, Eloise K. and her twin sister, Genevieve C. Dutro of Evanston. Aina was very pleased to attend a family reunion with all of these children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren held in Illinois in the summer of 2011.

Aina will always be remembered for her love of her husband, George, her love of her children and family, her love of the Lord, her dynamic drive to help and care for others, her beauty, and her outgoing personality. She is forever loved and will be greatly missed by her family and friends.

For those interested in memorials for Aina, the family suggests that you contribute to Epworth Methodist Church, 525 Main Street, Kalispell, MT 59901; or The Methodist Church of the Incarnation, 330 West Golf Road, Arlington Heights, Illinois.

There will be a celebration of Aina Dutro’s life with her family and minister at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Epworth Methodist Church in Kalispell .  For those in the Chicagoland area who were unable to make it to this service, there will be a celebration of Aina Dutro’s life in the December/January time frame at the Church of the Incarnation, United Methodist.

Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home and Crematory is caring for Aina’s family. You are invited to go to www.jgfuneralhome.com to view Aina’s guest book, offer condolences and share memories.