Norma Edmiston Happ, 88

Norma Edmiston Happ, a longtime valley resident, passed away at the Immanuel Lutheran Home on June 24, 2015, due to complications from a stroke.

Norma was born in 1926 in Colfax, Washington, to Amanda Robbin Edmiston and James Gray Edmiston. At 6 months of age, Norma moved to Kalispell and graduated from Flathead County High School in 1944. She graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, with a degree in music.  

Norma served as a three-term Kalispell City Council member from Wards 3 and 4 and was first elected in 1965. She was chosen and served as president of the Council, and in 1975 became Kalispell’s first woman mayor, finishing out Mayor Larry Bjorneby’s term. She ran for re-election and served another four-year term. She was very proud that she was in office when the style of city government favored a strong mayor, long before the city manager form of government came to be.

She contributed to the Daily Inter Lake with a column titled, “From the Mayor’s Desk.” During that time she was involved in many historic changes in the city, and was instrumental in saving the Conrad Mansion, allowing it to become the historic museum it is today.  

She had the honor of meeting four United States presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Upon meeting Richard Nixon she shook his hand and suggested he put a woman on the Supreme Court.

Norma loved music, was a piano teacher and volunteered her musical talents to many organizations around the Kalispell area.

Her accomplishments were numerous, and she found many ways of involving herself in the community. She was a longtime member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church and was on multiple committees and councils. She was a 65-year member of PEO, Chapter C. She served on the C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery board; Community Concert board, Kalispell Regional Medical Center board and was an early advocate and supporter of the Northwest Montana Historical Society (Museum at Central School), sitting on the senior advisory board. She was the Beta Sigma Phi Lady of the Year in 1975 and inducted into the Buffalo Hill Golf Club Hall of Fame in 2014. She was also a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary Club International.

Norma was a patriot and so proud of our military. She was a sports fan, and for a time was a season ticket holder for the NFL Arizona Cardinals. One of her happiest memories was attending game six of the 2001 World Series and cheering on the Arizona Diamondbacks to victory over the Yankees.

Norma was preceded in death by her parents, and former husband Robert W. Happ.

She is survived by her children, Craig M. Happ and wife Bea Happ of Missoula, and Laurie Happ of Kalispell; grandchildren, Cambria Happ of Washington, D.C., and Jeffrey Happ and wife Megan; and great-grandchildren, Olivia and Isabella of Castaic, California; brother, James G. Edmiston, and wife, Phillis Edmiston; nephew, James G. Edmiston III; and niece, Marla Edmiston.

Services for Norma will be held at 11 a.m. on July 10 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, with a celebration of life at the Museum at Central School immediately following.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to Bethlehem Lutheran Church or the Museum at Central School.