Cover photo for Opal Josephine Congdon's Obituary
Opal Josephine Congdon Profile Photo

Opal Josephine Congdon

September 29, 1919 — March 12, 2016

Obituary Image

MISSOULA – Opal Ringen Congdon quietly passed away Saturday, March 12, 2016, of natural causes. She was born September 29, 1919 in Alton Missouri to William C Ringen and Pearl Christine Stoots and was raised in Quapaw Oklahoma.

Opal joined the Navy in 1943 as a WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service program) and served for 2 years and 3 months as a Control Tower Operator before being discharged as a Sp(Y)3c(T), the equivalent of a Third Class Petty Officer in todays Navy.   After the Navy, Opal attended Park College in Parkville Missouri where she met and married James E. Congdon.  Upon graduation they returned to Wisconsin where Opal worked as a social worker for the city of Madison while James attended law school.  She and James headed west and settled in Missoula in 1961.  After a short return to the east coast while James attended New York Law School, they returned to Missoula for good in 1964.

Upon returning to Missoula, Opal worked as a substitute teacher at various elementary schools including Lowell, Whittier, Willard and Lewis and Clark.  She began working with James as his legal secretary when he opened his own practice in 1965 and continued until his retirement in 2008.

Opal and James loved spending time at their cabin on Flathead Lake and they spent weekends there all year long.  In the summers, Opal could be found zipping up and down the hill on her riding lawn mower; a job she continued in to her early 90s.

Her husband of 66 years, James passed away in January 2015. Opal was also preceded in death by her parents, her sister Ona and her three brothers, Orville, Oren and Otis.  Opal is survived by her daughter Christine and husband David Howe of Florence; son Walter and wife Ann of Missoula; granddaughters Amber Bass, Elizabeth Bass, Ona Congdon and grandson Sam Congdon.

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, March 23, at 2 pm at the Western Montana State Veterans Cemetery.  .

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to Women in military service or America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Opal Josephine Congdon, please visit our flower store.

Guestbook

Visits: 1

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the
Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors