Gloria Ann Puckett, 84

Our beloved mother, Gloria Ann Puckett, 84, went home to be with her Lord and Savior on Nov. 23, 2023. She passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Kalispell, Montana. She was a kind, strong, generous and religious woman, who deeply loved her family, friends and God.

She was born Jan. 10, 1939, to William and Nellie (Moon) Paumer in Basin, Wyoming. She attended grammar school in a small Hyattville, Wyoming schoolhouse and high school in nearby Manderson. 

The youngest of four daughters, she found herself outside working with her father on the family ranch near Hyattville. She was his “right-hand man.” Loving to ride her favorite horse, Cricket, she never found the time or the need to learn to ride a bicycle, her love for music also began here. She played the clarinet and sang in school and church choirs.

Upon graduation, she enrolled at Eastern Montana College to pursue her teaching degree. She paid her way through college by raising champion Hereford bulls. While at EMC she was a member of the United Campus Christian Fellowship. She continued her music here as well as singing in choirs and being featured in the opera, “The Cloak.” 

She then moved to Wolf Point, Montana, for her first teaching job. It was in this town where she met her life-long love of 60 years, Edward.

She taught in the Wolf Point school system for a few years before moving to Great Falls and Fairfield to start a dry cleaning business. They had two kids along the way, Brent and Michelle. They moved back to Wolf Point and opened another dry cleaning business, where they had Valerie. Gloria began teaching again while also working at the family dry cleaning business. An opportunity arose, and the family moved to Glasgow Air Force Base where she continued her teaching as the Director of the Head Start Program. Van, their fourth, was born there.

The family camped many weekends and traveled to many places around the West, including the Black Hills, Disneyland, the International Exposition on the Environment in 1974, and a caravan of 18 relatives to the Pacific Coast for clam digging and salmon fishing. 

The family remained in Glasgow until another opportunity arose to move the family overseas to Iran. With the overthrow of the Shah imminent in 1978, Gloria and her husband moved the family back to Montana. 

On the trip back, Ed and Gloria took the entire family and 18 suitcases on an epic, six-week, lifetime adventure through Europe. The family visited nearly every Western European country. For 10 of those days, the family traveled in a VW camping van through Northern Europe, with no iPhones or GPS. The family visited Washington D.C. for a week before returning home. After a nearly two-year absence, the Pucketts returned to Montana, moving to Kalispell.

Over the next 40-plus years, Gloria raised her family and had careers at a few valley businesses including as a bookkeeper for a retail business and as the activity coordinator for the Immanuel Lutheran Home, a job she dearly loved. 

At Immanuel, she was able to use her lifetime of talents for the enjoyment of the residents. These included crafting, music, flower arranging, gardening and she applied them all to her final vocation. It was here that she was also able to share faith through love and prayers with residents. All the while, Gloria remained active in her church by singing in the choir, teaching Sunday School, and through outreach programs.

Her greatest joy was spending time with family, friends, and helping others. She loved to sing, have tea parties, or do crafts, like making corn husk dolls, with her grandchildren. She also enjoyed crafting, playing pinochle, creating costumes, and visiting with her friends. Gloria loved to spread the Word of Christ through prayers, words, and actions. Comforting all the best she could with kindness and companionship.

In her free time, she was a generous person who often helped people less fortunate than herself. She could often be found baking cinnamon rolls and growing raspberries and flowers to give to friends.

After retirement, she remained active by attending her grandchildren’s events, thrifting, participating in a book club, a woman’s church fellowship, and growing amazing gardens.

She treasured and bragged about her four children, 14 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Ed and Gloria attended every one of their children’s and grandchildren’s high school graduations, three grandchildren's weddings, and all but two college graduation. This was one of Gloria’s proudest achievements. She was devoted and fiercely protective of her family.

She was proud of her family history, tracing one side to Pilgrims on the Mayflower, another side to Czechoslovakia, and beyond. She often was proud to say, “even though they weren't rich people, they felt their family was their wealth.”

She is survived by two sisters, Helen Stevenson (Robert) Payson, Utah, and Virginia Frisbee, Basin, Wyoming; her four children, Brent (Ellen) Castle Rock, Colorado, Michelle Sundh (Marlon) Kalispell, Valerie Kouns (John) Kalispell, and Van (Heather) Twin Bridges; 14 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

She will be remembered for her singing, her love of God, her contagious laughter, her red hair and her love of flowers.

Our dear, sweet mother has been carried away by the angels and is now resting peacefully with her loved ones and God. She will be greatly missed by all that knew her.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Dec. 9, at the Buffalo Hills Terrace in Kalispell. The immediate family will hold a private interment service at Woodlawn Cemetery on a later date to be determined.

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