James 'Jim' Samuelson, 88

A memorial for longtime Columbia Falls cabinet maker James “Jim” Samuelson, 88, will be at 10 a.m. July 20 at Woodlawn Cemetery in Columbia Falls. 

He died at his home in Yuma, Ariz., on Oct. 9.

He and his widow Lee lived in Columbia Falls from 1956 until their retirement in 1986, when they moved to Arizona. 

Born Sept. 1, 1924, Samuelson grew up the second of four brothers on a farm in Depression Era Maynard, Iowa. His parents were Nicholas Samuelson and Ardath Conrad.

After high school, he married longtime sweetheart Leila (Lee) Renfrow. The couple celebrated their 68th anniversary September 2012. Samuelson joined the Army in 1944 and was sent to the European Theater, where he served in the German occupation until 1946. 

When he returned to peacetime America, Jim and his wife raised two girls in Iowa and in 1956 moved to Columbia Falls where Jim for many years operated his own custom cabinetmaking shop, Samuelson Cabinets, on Railroad Street. 

He took his family on many Montana trips and waterskiing adventures. During their long retirement, Jim and Leila traveled the U.S., Canada and Mexico by motorcycle and RV. They worked summers at the Grand Canyon, on the TV set of “Bonanza” in Nevada and as campground hosts and employees in the Colorado Rockies and New Mexico. In recent years, the couple spent summers with friends Bill and Bonnie Poser in Conrad.

Jim was a member of the Foothills Southern Baptist Church in Yuma and the VFW. He was a past commander of VFW Post 5650 in Columbia Falls.

He was preceded in death by his parents, and three brothers, Thomas, Philip and Charles. 

He is survived by his widow, Leila, of Yuma; two daughters, Terri Lee Gamble and husband Harry of Prescott Valley, Ariz., and Roxana Hessman of Denver; and four grandchildren, Erin, Kris, Bryan and Cody.

Jim was known by family and friends as “the can-do man” and was often called on to fix and make things in his woodworking shop in his back yard in Yuma. He loved a challenge.

Funeral services were held Oct. 13 at Foothills Baptist Church in Yuma. His ashes will be buried next to his parents at Woodawn Cemetery.