Wilda Ruth Malone

DUBLIN GULCH — Wilda Ruth Malone, 83, died quietly in her sleep on Tuesday morning, Aug. 30, 2005, at her home.

Born May 12, 1922, at the family home at Sheep Creek in rural Broadwater County to Floyd L. and Bessie (Parker) Double, she was raised there until age 15 when her family moved to Valley View to run a dairy farm. She also worked in Arlee at this time, where she met the love of her life, her husband William M. Malone. They married on June 22, 1940, in Arlee and she became a dedicated and loving wife and mother as they started their family.

Always a busy person, she would keep the family going whether it was to school, the ball games or making sure they got what they needed. In her spare time she would knit, but family was her home.

She was preceded in death by her parents; five sisters, Laura Campbell, Eula Thompson, June Gill, Ernest Joy and Mary Double; son-in-law Gaile Rider, and grandchildren Justin Rider and Jessica Sullivan.

She leaves behind her children, Wilda "Willie" Rider of Missoula, William Malone of Stevensville, Donald Malone of San Luis Obispo, Calif., and Louise Billings of Dublin Gulch; two sisters, Norma McCabe of Tigard, Ore., and Wilma Schaffer of Coeur d'Alene; eight grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; a great-great-grandson; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins, and two special caregivers, Wanda Yoder and Annette Carlson.

Funeral services were Sept. 3 in the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Charlo. Interment was in the Pleasant View Cemetery in St. Ignatius.

Family asks that memorials be made to the Shriners' Hospital.

Foster & Durgeloh Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.