Recording major milestones

Duana DeReu is quietly responsible for some of the most important documents in Flathead County.

As a deputy clerk, DeReu takes care of birth certificates, death certificates, title deeds and numerous other legal documents at the Flathead County Clerk and Recorder’s Office. It might not sound like the most glamorous job, but DeReu’s work has had a major impact throughout the county and beyond.

“It’s a team effort,” she said of the five-person department based at the Flathead County Courthouse. That may be true, but it’s clear that DeReu, after approximately 15 years in the department, has a special knack for the job.

Her expertise likely is the reason she was able to finally produce a death certificate last fall for David Partlow, a Washington man who disappeared while hang-gliding in Kalispell in 1987. Because the body of Partlow, who went missing near Blaine Mountain in May 1987 was never found, his mother, Naomi McCrea, struggled for decades trying to secure legal proof of her son’s passing. It wasn’t until she found DeReu that she was finally able to get this crucial piece of closure.

“I don’t know why they didn’t get it in the ’80s,” DeReu said as she described the two-year-long process she went through to finally produce Partlow’s death certificate. “Everybody always asks me that.”

It took DeReu’s intimate knowledge of the state system, extensive contacts from 15 years in the business and a lot of dedication to come up with the document at long last.

“I had everybody rallying,” DeReu said, from Darlington Cremation and Burial Services in Kalispell, to state officials in Helena, to DeReu’s sister, who paid the $150 fee to open an online file to get the process started.

And even though DeReu doesn’t think there’s anything unique about her approach to the job, she recognized how meaningful this breakthrough was for McCrea and the rest of Partlow’s family.

“I kept thinking, ‘I have to get this to her,’” DeReu remembered as she raced against time and a convoluted system to get the death certificate to Partlow’s aging mother.

DeReu took a trip to Spokane on Veterans Day 2019 to hand-deliver the death certificate to McCrea, who was a veteran along with her deceased son.

“You don’t mail something like that,” DeReu said.

She showed up in Spokane with a gift basket full of huckleberry goodies and the surprise of a lifetime for McCrea, now 91. “She didn’t know I had it with me,” DeReu said.

It was an overwhelming moment more than 30 years in the making. “I’m a crier,” DeReu confessed, but she said she didn’t cry during her encounter with McCrea. The two women ended up sitting in McCrea’s mobile home and silently staring at each other for minutes on end, trying to wrap their heads around finally meeting in person after two years’ worth of phone calls and uncertainty.

“I was just lucky that Naomi found me,” DeReu said. No doubt McCrea felt equally fortunate to have found such a skilled ally in DeReu.

DeReu said she and McCrea don’t keep in touch anymore, but she keeps up with The Spokesman-Review, which wrote about McCrea’s quest for closure in her son’s death, to see if there is ever any news of McCrea.

Partlow’s is far from the only special case DeReu has worked on during her long tenure in the Clerk and Recorder’s Office. DeReu said she has produced the paperwork for multiple high-profile deaths in the county and other major local legal proceedings, many of which she can’t disclose because of their significance.

DeReu said many of the less flashy parts of the job are equally as important to her. She regularly works with young people who are dealing with homelessness and unstable conditions, who don’t have a single shred of personally identifiable information. “They don’t have anything. They have to start with a birth certificate,” DeReu noted.

She said she uses her expertise and connections to find creative ways to produce documents for these individuals. “We do whatever we can. We figure it out,” she said. And the impact is significant. “They’re so grateful,” she added.

Some of the cases—particularly death certificates—are more trying, but DeReu’s special approach helps make this process easier for loved ones dealing with loss. “When they’re grieving, we try to make it as easy as possible,” she said.

And with her experience and expertise, she’s also invaluable to people with disabilities navigating the complicated legal system and out-of-town visitors who want to see records of their long-lost Kalispell relatives.

Next to DeReu’s desk are stacks of enormous books with ancient yellowed pages that detail the births and deaths of Flathead County residents dating back to the early 20th century.

“People can look up their genealogy. It’s kind of cool to piece it together for them,” said DeReu, who has lived all her life in the Flathead. She can quickly point to her great-great-grandfather’s birth certificate entry in one of the tomes, alongside people who died of typhoid fever, scarlet fever and more unusual demises such as “frozen feet,” “bowel trouble” and “struck by freight train.”

DeReu’s daily routine includes poring over these detailed historical documents, carefully entering data into the online archives and making sure various certificates conform to state standards. She regularly wades through a room stuffed with boxes of documents, each containing about 4,000 certificates each.

Sometimes, DeReu churns out 100 death certificates in a single day. When she met with the Inter Lake on Thursday, she had already created 40 death certificates by lunchtime.

“It’s a lot,” DeReu recognized, but she also said, “It’s never mundane. You learn something new every day.”

Even though DeReu maintains there’s nothing especially unique about her role, she said the job requires someone who’s “willing to plug away…willing to learn and willing to work with the public.”

She attributes most of her success—though she might not call it that—to her experience on the job. “It’s a skill that you can’t go to school for. It’s priceless knowledge,” she said.

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.