Corinne Lundgren, 94
Corinne Lundgren, 94, a resident of Kalispell and West Glacier, passed away April 27, 2024. She was born in Kalispell in 1929 to Thomas and Florence Brayson, and her childhood home was the Stoltze lumber camp at Half Moon during the Great Depression. She attended Canyon View School and Columbia Falls High School, graduating as class valedictorian of the CFHS Class of 1947.
College was not a likely destination for a girl from the lumber camp, and even with help from her parents, she needed to work during the school year and summers to make ends meet and graduated with the MSU Class of 1951. A lifetime friend and sorority sister at MSU, Betty Lou King, was hired at Boeing in Seattle and convinced her to apply, and Corinne joined the secretarial and support pool. After Boeing, her first teaching job was in Mansfield, Washington, followed by stints in Okanagan and Seattle.
A New Year’s Eve date in 1954 with Dan Lundgren at the old Big Mountain Chalet resulted in a marriage proposal. The two were engaged and then married Feb. 11, 1956, making their homes in West Glacier and Kalispell. Corinne treasured the friendships she made in both communities and always looked forward to the annual springtime move to West Glacier where the family was engaged in business at West Glacier Mercantile.
She continued with her love of art, painting in oil, acrylic and watercolor. She traveled Montana on painting and sketching expeditions with good friends Karen Leigh and Marsha Davis; the resulting exhibits were titled Vision Quest, East Meets West and A Montana Journey. The trio explored countless small Montana towns and met the residents of these special places. She was a member of the Montana Watercolor Society, Montana Institute of the Arts, and was a founding member of the Hockaday Center for the Arts in Kalispell.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Dan Lundgren.
She is survived by children, Lisa Lundgren (Di) of Seattle, Bill Lundgren (Diane) of Kalispell/West Glacier, and Kitty (Mark) Dowaliby of Whitefish. She is also survived by grandchildren, Shane Dowaliby (Anamarie) and Emma Washer (Jacob); and great-grandchildren, Quinn and Whitman Dowaliby and William and Charlotte Corinne Washer.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. on May 9, at St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in Kalispell, with a family burial service to follow at C.E. Conrad Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the Humane Society of Northwest Montana, Glacier National Park Conservancy, or a charity of the donor’s choice. Darlington is caring for her family