Connie Niemeyer
RONAN — Constance Niemeyer, 93, known to many as Connie/Mom, died Thursday, Jan. 12, 2006, at St. Luke Extended Care Facility.
She was a cosmic adventurer, world traveler, mystic, healer and the keeper of stories for generations of her family.
She was born March 3, 1912, in Billings to LeRoy and Constance Baker, the third of four children. The family moved to Missoula shortly afterward, and she lived in the Garden City for many of the next 60 years. She was a self-professed tomboy and declared that she was "born fly fishing," an instinct honed by countless fishing trips with her father along the Blackfoot and Bitterroot rivers and Lolo Creek.
She and her husband-to-be, Joseph Niemeyer, were students together at Missoula County High School. They were married Nov. 9, 1931, in Butte and celebrated their nuptials with dining and dancing in Meaderville.
Dancing remained one of their favorite pastimes. "We must have danced several thousand miles during those years," Connie said.
The couple raised five children and spent most of their married life in "The Big House" on Spurgin Road. Connie worked at Western Union and spent many summers helping organize the Missoula County Fair. She also sold stories to Modern Romance magazine, a vocation she described as "lots of fun."
She was a 4-H leader and belonged to the Orchard Homes Women's Club and Orchard Homes Country Life Club.
Her husband, who worked for Northern Pacific and Burlington Northern railroads, died May 26, 1969, in Paradise. They were married 38 years.
In the years that followed, Connie studied journalism at the University of Montana and began to travel — first to Mexico and then in 1973 to Europe, where she spent eight months abroad with three teenage girls.
Those adventures were just the beginning. Over the next three decades, her earthly travels took her to China, Japan, India and Kashmir, England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.
She sold her home in Missoula and when she wasn't roaming the globe, she was often visiting friends and family in "Herbie," her trusty Toyota camper.
She studied massage and reflexology and continued her practice of yoga and meditation. Always spiritually inquisitive, she dined with Kahunas in Hawaii, climbed to the tomb of Moses in Kashmir, and visited Sai Baba in India. "I just never believed in a closed mind," she said.
She eventually retired from traveling and spent the past 13 years living with her daughter, Billie Lee, in Ronan. Four of her five children lived nearby, and a grandson and two great-grandchildren lived next door.
She is survived by five children and their partners: Jyoti SaeUn of Big Arm; Billie Lee and Arthur Gorov of Ronan; Jan and Chris Niemeyer of Ronan; Joe and Debra Niemeyer of Seaside, Ore.; and Kristi Niemeyer and Steve Connell of Charlo; 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
She firmly believed that all of her grandchildren were "beautiful, pure and perfect" (even when their parents were a little dubious). She also hoped that each generation would "know peace, know joy and know love."
Friends and family will gather to celebrate her life on March 4, a day after her 94th birthday, at Leon Hall, east of Charlo.