Patrecia Ruth Barrow Cannaday L’Allier

Patrecia L’Allier passed away peacefully in Kalispell on Saturday, March 13, 2021.

Patrecia Ruth Barrow graced this earth on Dec. 14, 1928, the daughter of Ruth Proud Barrow Hewitt and Frederick Lawrence Barrow.

Better known as Pat, Patty, or Treash, she always loved an adventure. She explained her name to others as “Patricia with an ‘E.’”

Pat was raised in Kalispell by her mother, Ruth Hewitt. Though their small apartment in town did not lend itself to having all of the pets Pat wanted, and despite her mother’s misgivings, Pat talked a family friend into finding her a horse. She spent countless hours riding her mare, Nita, around the Flathead Valley. Whenever ol’ Joe McGregor, a local wrangler and guide, would bring in a new herd of horses to town, Pat and her girlfriends would sneak down to her Grandfather Proud’s corrals and put one of the green horses into the chute. One by one, each would climb aboard, open the gate and hope for the best during their own private rodeos. When asked years later whose idea this was, Pat proudly stated, “mine.”

In the kind of striking contrast that defined Pat’s personality, she also studied ballet and became quite an accomplished dancer during her teens. Along with her dance partners, Dick and Don Walters, she performed many times at the Stand theatre. She would literally perform as a ballerina one day and then ride broncs the next.

Pat was also a talented student and received high honors, graduating from Flathead High in 1947. The fall after she graduated, she packed her bags and headed for Pullman, Washington, to study Veterinary Medicine at what was then Washington State College. Sadly, her dream of becoming a vet was dashed when the women students were told they could not finish medical school unless they were third year students due to the number of returning veterans.

On Aug. 11, 1951, Pat married Paul Cannaday, a young engineer working on the Hungry Horse Dam. They moved briefly to the Tri-Cities while Paul worked at the Handford Nuclear Project. While there, daughter Sheri was born in 1953 and soon after, they packed up for Kalispell where Paul took a job at Anaconda Aluminum Company. Son Greg came along in 1955, followed by another daughter, Kirby in 1959.

When her family eventually moved to the rural east side of Kalispell, Pat was able to have the acreage necessary to have the horses and other animals she had loved so much throughout her lifetime. She passed on her love of horses to her girls, though for Greg, not so much, as he was the one who got to haul their hay every year! Pat’s veterinarian skills ultimately proved helpful for the many pets her kids accumulated, as she doctored and nursed back to health birds, hawks, horses, cats, dogs, squirrels, and even a skunk one time.

Pat was a proud Montanan and loved her state’s mountains, lakes, and rivers. She was nicknamed “Pat single shot” when she shot a trophy buck that still holds the family record today. Pat had numerous encounters with wildlife including a moose and multiple bears. After her kids had some close encounters with a particularly troublesome bear one summer, Pat had had enough and took matters into her own hands, shooting and killing the problem bear. Never one to waste any meat, she took the carcass home and as her female neighbors in their dresses and heels watched in amazement, she skinned, cut up and preserved the meat to feed her family during the following months.

She loved backcountry trips to the Bob Marshall Wilderness with her friends, where many more adventures and shenanigans played out on horseback. She loved to travel and took many trips with her girlfriends to Hawaii, to Europe with her relatives the Somervilles, and on cruises with Cousin Bobby. Pat worked for many years for Tom Little at Snowline Tree Company and later started her own bookkeeping business.

Pat and Paul later divorced and in 1980 she married her high school friend, Chuck L’Allier. They moved to Whitefish and together ran a successful property management business until their retirement. Pat and Chuck loved their time at her family’s lake place in the summers and spent winters in Washington, Utah. Pat always had a love for art and her creative side came out when she started painting her own watercolor landscapes for her family and friends.

Pat was a beloved daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend to all. Her kind heart and spirit were always uplifting. She was an avid storyteller and had countless stories to tell, often weaving in suspenseful moments along with her wonderful sense of humor. Pat was loving to all of those around her and she will be greatly missed.

Pat was preceded in death by her mother, Ruth, in 1985; stepfather Henry “Hank” Hewitt in 1982; son-in-law Rod Campbell in 1993; and her husband Chuck in 2007.

She is survived by daughters: Sheri (Don) Anderson from Kila; and Kirby (Ron) Campbell-Rierson, currently living in Cambodia; and her son, Greg (Marie) Cannaday of Kalispell. She is also survived by her cherished grandchildren and great-grandchildren: Ian (Courtney) Anderson and daughter, Raime, of Spokane; Isaac (Dawn Ann) Anderson and sons; Slade and Trace of Kalispell; Elise (Phil) Moodie and daughters; Annsyn and Audrey, of Great Falls; Kaleb Cannaday of Missoula; Chad Campbell of Kalispell; Corey (Brittany) Campbell and daughter Keeley of Missoula; her close friend and former husband, Paul Cannaday, of Kalispell; close family members Roger, Melissa, and Gracia Somerville of Lakeside; and Sue and Geoff Young of Australia.

Pat’s children think that the following popular Ed Sheeran lyrics define their mom: “A heart that is broke is a heart that has been loved. You were an angel in the shape of my mom.”

Johnson Mortuary is caring for Pat’s family and a service will be held this summer, the date for which the family will announce in the future.