Lois Elizabeth (Falkner) Gorton, 94
Lois Elizabeth (Falkner) Gorton “passed into the arms of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” on July 21, 2015.
Lois was born in Kalispell in 1920 to Ernest Joseph Falkner and Sarah Mathilda Bogue. The youngest of five children, she grew up on Kalispell’s Eastside and attended Hedges, Central and “old” Edgerton School. After graduating from Flathead County High, she attended the College of Saint Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, and graduate school at Ohio State University.
She became an instructor of diet therapy at the Deaconess Hospital in Billings and, until she retired in 1978, taught dietetics for the Montana State University School of Nursing at the Billings Deaconess campus. Lois was proud of the fact that as a result of a successful class action lawsuit against MSU, she was retroactively granted the status of associate professor and awarded back compensation for her employment from 1975 to 1978.
Following his service in the Army during World War II, Robert Arthur “Bones” Gorton and Lois were married in 1946 at St. Matthew’s Church in Kalispell. Bones was a standout football player for the University of Montana Grizzlies while he completed his undergraduate studies on the GI Bill. Lois was a relief dietitian for the UM residence halls and later, the first dietitian for the student union and supervised the menus for the football team’s training table.
After Bones graduated, the couple lived briefly in Ronan, before settling in Billings, where they found teaching jobs and raised their three children, Charles David, Donna Jean and John Allan.
In an era when most women were expected to fill the role of housewives and mothers, Lois was a woman who successfully juggled both family and career. As a couple, Lois and Bones were much admired as great dancers, fun and loyal friends, and the couple to go to for all the little neighborhood emergencies. An industrious pair, they took property maintenance seriously and did many home improvement projects together. Lois liked to say they had “painted every place they ever lived in.”
The couple took annual summer excursions to “the Lake,” relaxing and enjoying summer fun with their children, family and friends. After retirement, they returned to Kalispell to enjoy the area they had always loved.
Lois and Bones were dedicated partners and parents. Raised Irish Catholic, Lois was a “hardworking little gal” known for living her life with purpose and determination. A testament of her loyalty to the “love of her life” was her caring for Bones as he struggled with Alzheimer’s disease for more than 10 years before his death in 2003.
Lois was an avid football fan, and even in her later years and, with failing eyesight, she kept up with the fortunes of the Ohio State Buckeyes and, of course, her beloved Griz — taking particular delight anytime they trounced the Cats.
Lois was preceded in death by her husband; her sister, Anna Mae; and her three brothers, Robert Ernest, James Edgar and Harold Joseph.
She is survived by her three children, David; Donna Crocker and her husband Jeff, and their three children, Ben and his wife Crystal, Kelcey, and Kate Ward and her husband Nathan; and Jack and his wife Emily, and their three children, Aaron, Sara and Sean. Lois also had three great-grandchildren, Cove, Shelby and David; as well as several nieces and nephews. She did love and enjoy those babies! She will be missed by all.
Any memorial gifts could be directed to Alzheimer or Parkinson research organizations.
A graveside service for family and close friends to celebrate Lois’ life will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, July 27, at the C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery in Kalispell with Pastor Mel Haug attending.
Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home is assisting with arrangements.