Tami Ray, 55

Tami Ray, 55, “went to be with God and her parents in Heaven” on June 1, 2015, at Immanuel Lutheran Home surrounded by her loving family.

Tami, the youngest of three daughters was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on September 28, 1959, to Carl and Jeanne Ray. Tami spent her younger days growing up in Nebraska.

As a teenager she moved with the family to Great Falls where she attended CMR High School. She then attended the University of Bozeman for 2 years.

Tami was an Insurance Salesperson in Fort Worth, Texas, where she met and married Greg Wilkerson. They moved to Hawaii where Tami worked for Kona Coffee as a sales representative. Later she divorced and moved to her beloved Montana to be close to her family.

Tami loved gourmet cooking and grew tomatoes for her great salsa recipe. Tami loved people. She was a saleswoman at heart and would get to know everyone she came into contact with. She worked for John and Paula Lepo at Lepo & Co. on Main Street in Whitefish and lived in one of the great San Francisco style apartments above the main street businesses.

Tami had many friends from many facets of life. She rode horses, went fly fishing, and loved Montana’s great outdoors.

Tami was working for the Whitefish Pilot as an outside saleswoman when she had a tragic accident on Christmas Eve, 2002, and has been in Immanuel Lutheran Home since 2003. Immanuel Lutheran was her home for 12 years where she was given great care, love and compassion from the entire staff. We will forever be indebted for the kindness Tami was shown by people who went above and beyond, doing more than their everyday tasks to ensure she was comfortable and for their gentle touch and guidance from this world to the next.

Tami’s ashes will be joined with her mother’s in Wolf Creek Canyon on a sunny day.

Tami is preceded in death by her parents, Carl and Jeanne Ray.

She is survived by her older sisters, Carla Jeanne Ray of Great Falls and her life partner Lee Withrow and Cathy Lee Perry of Kalispell and her husband Leonard Perry of Kalispell and her nieces and nephews; Trisha and Russell Ehnes of Great Falls, Hillary Ann Counts of Kalispell, Stephanie Jeanne and John Pelizzari of Trumble, Connecticut, and Tessa Lee Perry of Columbia Falls, Ron and Becky Ray of Great Falls; great-nieces, Lacy Ehnes of Great Falls, Hallee Jeanne Counts of Kalispell, Jamie Sundquist  of Great Falls, Tami Jean Ray of Great Falls, and twins Jillian Maggie Ray and Justin Dean Ray of Great Falls and Great Nephews; Corey Ehnes of Great Falls, Joel Dean Ray of Great Falls, Sean Everett Arthur Norris of Columbia Falls, and Joseph Pelizzari of Trumble, Connecticut; as well as many cousins from Great Falls. Also included are Tami’s friends, Amber and Steve Golliday of Virginia, Kathy Polejewski of Kalispell, Rhonda Niblet of Kalispell, Anna Cevrero of Kalispell, Maggie Campbell of Great Falls, Castle Farinas of Seattle, Bruce Farline of Spokane and Craig and Michelle Nelson of Kalispell as well as the many people who touched her life along the way.

Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home and Crematory is caring for the family.