Marjorie Mae Stiles Olsen, 91

Marjorie Mae Stiles Olsen, 91 ½, “passed from her earthly home to her heavenly home” on Aug. 20, 2016.

She was born Nov. 3, 1924, in Temvik, North Dakota, to Vern and Verna Stiles.

Her family moved to Lakeside where 10-year-old Marjorie delivered milk along the lakeshore. She made several of her lifelong friends while there.

Marjorie and brother, Milton, attended Birch Grove School after her family moved right next door in 1939. This is where she began her lifelong involvement in 4-H.

She attended Flathead County High School, graduating in 1944. Afterward, she headed to Bremerton, Washington, where she worked as a rigger and a welder in the shipyards. This is where she met Duane R. Olsen. They were married on Nov. 5, 1944, just before Duane was shipped out to the South China Sea.

After Duane’s discharge from the Navy, the two of them returned to the Birch Grove Community where they raised three daughters, Cheryl, Kayleen and Dana.

Marjorie devoted her life to family and community through her involvement in the many clubs and groups that she loved so much.

She was a charter member of the Hobby Club started in 1951 and helped them celebrate their 60th anniversary at the Birch Grove Community Center.

It was in Lake Blaine that Marjorie was baptized in 1954 and remained a faithful member of the First Baptist Church of Columbia Falls thereafter.

Along with Duane, her cousin and neighbors, she helped found the Country Cousins 4-H Club. Marjorie remained actively involved and would have celebrated 50 years of leadership and five 4-H generations this coming year. She was involved not only at the club level but also the county and state level. She chaperoned a Flathead County 4-H delegation to Washington, D.C., and hosted 4-H members from Vermont and Michigan. She worked at many 4-H fundraising events over the years — at the County Fair Kitchen selling salad by the pound, sub sandwiches by the inch, chili supper and auctioneered white elephant auctions. She was president of the State Leaders Council and helped with the development of the Loon Lake 4-H Camp. She instilled in her children and them in theirs, these life skills.

For over 30 years she cleaned and cooked for Jean and Sam Bibler, and after Duane’s passing that helped to fill the huge void in her life.

Marjorie made many wedding cakes for friends and family although she claimed “this one is the last” she always came through for whoever was next to be married, passing her love of cooking, baking and hosting on to her daughters and granddaughters, who will miss her dearly for just always being there.

She loved camping with family and friends, ice skating and bobsledding when her girls were young, card parties, square dancing and could usually be found in or around the kitchen that was her true passion.

She loved to cook, bake and preserve, this love was seen over the years in her entries in the Northwest Montana Fair where she won Best of Show many times. Even this year she exhibited six canning entries at the fair last week. Her greatest joy was sharing, and was a gift to friends, family and community all of the years of her life because that was her way of showing those around her just how much she cared,

She was preceded in death by her husband, Duane R. Olsen; her brother, Milton Stiles; her half brother, Bill Bowen; and her great granddaughter, SaRenaty Bristow.

With faith, hope and love, she is survived by her daughters, Cheryl Timlick (Ben), Kayleen Bristow (John), and Dana Higgins (Dan) all of Kalispell; her seven grandchildren, Denise Taylor (Rod), LaRena Giesler (Robert), Jay Bristow, Tory Krause, and Nikaela Higgins, all of Kalispell, Sheila McWhorter (Chet) of West Point, Nebraska, and Larryn Peterson (Matt) of Georgetown, Tennessee; 13 great-grandchildren, one great-great-granddaughter; one sister-in-law, Darlene Olsen Fisher of Kalispell; and many nieces and nephews and extended family.

The family suggests memorials to the Country Cousins 4-H Club at flathead4h.com, or the Birch Grove Willing Workers, c/o JoEllen Williams, 138 Tronstad Road, Kalispell.

The viewing is 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, at Buffalo Hill Funeral Home. Services will be held at 10 a.m. on Aug. 27 at Buffalo Hill Funeral Home, with graveside rites following at Glacier Memorial Gardens. The family invites you to join them at the Country Fair Kitchen at the fairgrounds for fellowship and reminiscing.

Friends are encouraged to visit the website at www.buffalohillfh.com to leave notes of condolence for the family. Buffalo Hill Funeral Home and Crematory is caring for the family.