Helen M. Dale

Helen Marie (Hansen) Dale, 87, of Hamilton and formerly of Choteau and Dillon passed away peacefully Monday March 23, 2009 at Marcus Daly Hospice Care Center. She was born April 15, 1921 on a small dairy farm near Withee, in Clark County Wisconsin. Her parents were Hans Christian Hansen and Anna Petersen Hansen, all of Danish descent.

Helen attended a two-room rural elementary school and then attended Withee High School where she graduated with honors. After milking cows by hand for 18 years she managed to slip off to Eau Claire State Teachers College and to the University of Wisconsin.

She taught school in Tomah, Wisconsin. In the summer of 1946 she worked in Yellowstone Park and became smitten with Montana. She returned to work in Glacier National Park in the summer of 1947. She then decided to call Montana home.

Helen taught school primarily in Choteau, but also in Cut Bank, Agawam, Farmington, Bynum and at the Miller Hutterite Colony.

In 1953 she married Harvey L. Dale of Choteau. They raised their three children there. She spent 48 years in Choteau - according to her "not a bad place". She moved to Dillon in 1993 and to Hamilton a few years later.

After retirement she cooked for the cowboys at the Hodson Ranch near Cascade and the LF Ranch near Augusta, tended bar at the Isaac Walton Inn at Essex, enjoyed traveling and any adventure where she could see new places and meet new people.

Helen had a love for singing and dancing from the very beginning. Her Pa and Grandpa played fiddle at schoolhouses, country halls, hay barns and Danish Brotherhood Lodge doings. She had a great love of Montana and its history and people. She and Harvey took their kids everywhere in Montana. They camped, fished, picnicked, hunted for arrowheads and explored. If Helen didn't know where a road led to, she took it. She enjoyed teaching and especially loved putting on musical programs - Bynum school was the best.

She was also active in VFW Auxiliary, various senior centers, elder hostel and the Democrat Party.

Recent highlights in her life include viewing a video of her grandsons Scott and Matt Merenz singing the National Anthem at the Montana High School Wrestling Tourney in February. She also enjoyed recent visits from friends and what she called "a bunch of Dales telling tall tales" at her bedside.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents, husband Harvey Dale and brothers Lester Hansen and Warren Hansen. She is survived by her two sons, Don and wife Crystal Dale of Corvallis, Montana and Dick and wife Sandi Dale of Jamestown, ND; and by her daughter Janet and husband Glenn Merenz of Dillon, Montana. She is also survived by her sister Ethel Anderson of Owen, Wisconsin and four grandchildren, Scott and Matthew Merenz, Sonny Scherrer and Justin Wilson and three great-grandchildren.

The family suggests memorials be made to the Choteau Lions Club Swimming Pool, P.O. Box 619, Choteau, MT 59422.