Hollie Genevieve Hoover, 101
Hollie Genevieve Hoover passed away at the age of 101, on March 29, 2016, in Deer Lodge, with her family by her side.
Hollie was born Dec. 28, 1914, to Ada Hogan Hoover and Chester Hoover in Gold Creek, Montana, at the ranch home of her grandparents, David and Emily Hogan.
She attended grade school in New Chicago, Montana, and graduated from high school in Drummond in 1932. Hollie graduated from Montana State Normal College in Dillon in June 1934 as an elementary teacher. She later attended summer schools at Montana State University in Missoula and University of Colorado in Boulder.
Hollie’s teaching career began in a country school on the East Fork of Rock Creek south of Philipsburg. The session ran in the warmer months from March through November as the snow was too deep in the winter. Her duties, in addition to teaching, were to build the fire in the stove every day and clean the school house. She rode her horse two and one half miles to school every day and taught in this school for two years.
Hollie then taught at Hall School for five years and taught at the Philipsburg school for four years. In 1945, she accepted a teaching position in Kalispell and taught in the Cornelius Hedges School for 28 years, retiring in 1975. She was a proud member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International for 62 years.
She was an active member of the Lutheran Church for 70 years and especially enjoyed making quilts for Lutheran World Relief which were distributed world-wide.
School vacations were spent traveling and she visited France, England, Ireland, Alaska, and all of Canada and the U.S. She loved her yard, flowers, hummingbirds and watching the deer in the field near her home.
Hollie was preceded in death by her parents; sister and brother-in-law, Alta Hoover Monson and Hans Monson; brother-in-law, Larry Gebhardt; and niece, Karol Monson Charlson.
She is survived by her sister, Mary Hoover Gebhardt, in Deer Lodge; nephews, Chester Monson of Deer Lodge, Don Charlson of Hysham and Larry Gebhardt Jr. of Great Falls; nieces, Rita McDonald of Wapato, Washington, and Shirley Gebhardt of Conrad; and “adopted kids,” Marlene Counsell of Little Elm, Texas, and Daryl Counsell of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Thank you to Hollie’s caregivers and special thanks to Joan Sewell for her friendship and generous help.
Services were held on Saturday, April 2, at St. John Lutheran Church in Deer Lodge. Burial will be at a later date in the New Chicago Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to St. John Lutheran Church, Powell County Museum & Arts Foundation and Deer Lodge Elks — BPOE No. 1737.