Doris W. Anderson, 99

Doris W. Anderson, 99, passed away in the early morning hours of June 6, 2018, at Brendan House where she had resided for the past five years. She would have been 100 years old on Sept. 4.

Doris was born near Spirit Lake, Iowa, on Sept. 4, 1918, to Clarence and Mabel (Smith) Wiley. She was the youngest of six children. She attended a rural school near the farm and remembers horse-drawn school buses driven by her brother.

She graduated from high school at Superior Township School and attended three years of college in Iowa before moving to Chicago where she worked at a Scott Foresman bookstore.

When World War II started she left the bookstore and started working for Rock-Ola, the jukebox manufacturer, which had switched to making rifles for the war effort. Her future husband was in charge of the facility, and she was a government inspector, test firing the weapons as they came off the line.

She married Lester G. Anderson on June 6, 1944, on D-Day, though they did not know it at the time.

The couple split their time between Chicago, Michigan and Wisconsin. Les started a small gun repair shop in Chicago. While on a hunting trip in Michigan Doris learned of her brother Ben’s death and took a train to Iowa for the funeral service. On her trip she encountered Dolores, Ben’s daughter, who was on the same errand. Dolores had gotten leave from the Navy and it fell to Doris to tell her that Ben had been shot and killed by a teenager.

A friend had moved to the Flathead and spoke well of it, and Les and Doris decided to relocate to the West.

In Kalispell Les worked in logging at first and then built a small gun and tackle shop, The Hook and Bullet. Doris went to work at the Conrad National Bank (Later it became the First Interstate Bank); she worked in every department in the bank — bookkeeper, teller, Trust department, and the Real Estate Department where she became a loan officer.

Doris was initiated into Adah Chapter No. 17, Order of the Eastern Star Dec. 26, 1961. She remembered it was beautiful, as the room was decorated for Christmas. She served as Worthy Matron of Adah Chapter in 1968-1969 and later as secretary for 17 years.

As a dedicated member of Eastern Star she served on many Grand Chapter committees. She was a Grand Chaplain for Worthy Grand Matron Lillian Knudson in 1983-1984 and Grand Representative of British Columbia and the Yukon in 1986-1988. She served as Mother Advisor of Rainbow Assembly No. 19 for three years. She loved each of the girls. Doris also served a number of years on the State Executive board on the International Order of Rainbow for Girls.

Les passed away in May of 1989. He had belonged to Trinity Lodge No. 152, Royal Arch Counsel and Commandery and was a past Patron of Adah Chapter No. 17.

Doris was elected Associate Grand Conductress at the Grand Session in Kalispell in 1991.

During her years as Worthy Grand Matron she made visits to Jurisdictions, attended anniversaries and the homecomings. She took time out that year to have a total hip replacement.

Later she served as Mistress of Ceremonies for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Adah Chapter in April 1996.

She traveled more in her later years. She and her niece Barbara Knutson went to Iowa several times and to Texas to visit relatives. She and her niece Doris Goodale went to Landgrove and Termont, to explore the family plot, and to Massachusetts to visit an older brother.

As culmination to this last trip, she and her niece Doris became members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, thanks to her niece’s time-consuming research. She also visited England and Scotland with her niece Barbara and Barbara’s brother Don.

Doris outlasted all of her brothers and sisters, although two of them reached 106.

She is survived by their children and their children’s children. Nieces and nephews include Donald (Doris) Goodale of Thousand Oaks, California, William Shoemaker of Arlington Heights, Illinois, Ray and (Orla) Wiley of Fredericksburg, Iowa, Eleanor Medberry of Elgin Iowa, Sarah Salois of East Sandwich, Massachusetts, Wilma Helm of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Patricia Steenhausen and Marilyn Joul of Iowa and Michigan, Donald Anderson of El Paso, Texas, and Barbara Knutson of Kalispell,

The family would like to extend its thanks to Doris’s team of health care providers whose caring and expertise helped support her final years.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. on June 19 at Buffalo Hill Funeral Home, with burial to follow at C.E. Conrad Cemetery.

To send a note of condolence to the family, please visit www.buffalohillfh.com. Buffalo Hill Funeral Home is caring for the family.