Lois Arline Hubbard
POLSON — Lois Arline Hubbard died peacefully Feb. 9, 2007, at Community Hospital in Missoula. Although she had a rare form of lung disease for many years, she had only been hospitalized briefly when she succumbed to unrelated complications.
Lois was born to Horace W. and Edith Lang Judson in Great Falls Dec. 20, 1923. They lived in Browning for a year and then moved to Cut Bank where her dad was County Attorney for many years. Lois had one sister, Dorothy May.
The Judson family rented a small house across the street from the courthouse. Her mother played the piano for silent movies in the early ‘20s.
Lois remembered her Girl Scouting years and a special time when President Hoover’s wife, who promoted the Girl Scouts, came to Great Falls to herald their 25th Anniversary. Lois was one of a few girls chosen to go on a sightseeing trip with Mrs. Hoover in her limousine. She even got Mrs. Hoover’s autograph.
Lois attended Cut Bank schools, graduating as valedictorian in 1941.
Having earned a scholarship to Montana State University in Missoula (now U of M), she enrolled that fall where she was a member of Sigma Kappa sorority. In the freshmen women’s dormitory she was an officer. One of her dorm friends was Kathleen (Kay) Hubbard from Polson who said she thought Lois would like her upperclassman brother, Cal. They eventually did meet, and a year later they were married in the Presbyterian Church in Cut Bank, Jan. 9, 1943.
Cal and Lois lived in an apartment in Missoula while Cal finished his senior year and graduated as a pharmacist (RPH), which he remained for 50 years. Cal was the well-known and respected owner of Hubbard’s Pharmacy in downtown Polson, which his father had founded in 1933.
Cal was called to the infantry school at Fort Benning, Ga., for officers training in August 1943. Wives were allowed to live in nearby Columbus. Lois worked in a bank there for $90 a month to supplement Cal’s $66 a month stipend. She also accompanied Cal to his first assignment as a Second Lieutenant to Camp Shelby, Miss. There she and her friends became blood donors, which Lois did for many years after the war until her health prevented it.
When Cal was sent overseas to the European Theatre Lois lived with her parents in Cut Bank and there she gave birth to a boy, Calvin Judson. The hospital bill was $9 a day for 10 days; the doctor bill was $35. She was active serving at the USO and Blue Star Wives Club. One of their activities was seeing that every home had a blue star in their window if someone from that home was in the service. They also made cookies and candy for service men on the trains passing through Cut Bank as well as for the airmen stationed at the nearby air base. Lois’ dad was in the Civil Air Defense there.
When Cal came home he saw his 1-year-old son for the first time. The new family came to Polson and Cal started working in his dad’s drugstore. They had a baby boomer, Duncan, and moved into a little house. When they had another baby boomer son, Kirk, they bought a larger house and had fun remodeling and painting it. Lois was also a Cub Scout Den Mother.
She took her own boys to Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church and taught small children’s groups for 16 years. Later she was an active leader of adult classes and worked in the Women’s fellowship groups and studies for countless years. Lois was an active lifelong member of the First Presbyterian Church serving in many capacities including Deacon. She was editor of the church’s monthly newsletter. At one time she updated the church library using the Dewey Decimal system. She also led Bible classes at the nursing home for years. Home visitations were a special part of her church life.
One of the highlights of Lois’s life was drawing the plans for their four-bedroom home on a hill east of town and watching its progress during months of construction. All of the residents of the hill area met at the Hubbard home to think of a better name than Cemetery Road for the locale. In 1956 that they chose the name of Hillcrest Drive which it remains today. Soon a fourth son, Timothy, was born. There were many children on Hillcrest by then and a school bus route was established.
A fun time for Cal and Lois was being part of a five couple Supper Cub for 40 years. Another high point of Lois’s life was when they bought a boat and a lot on Wild Horse Island, where they built and furnished a cabin in 1972. The entire extended family, now numbering 27, has enjoyed that haven every summer since.
Cal and Lois took their young boys on trips every summer, visiting historic places in Montana and then eventually visiting every state in the continental United States. She took advantage of having a captive audience and read about points of interest to them as they rode along. After the boys were grown Cal and Lois went on overseas tours to 10 countries, plus Alaska and Hawaii.
Lois had several hobbies over the years; she did ceramics, rug making, crewel embroidery, knitting and special counted cross stitch pieces for family members. Lois made a photo album/scrapbook for each of her boys when they married. In turn, they all made a book of photos for their parents’ 60th wedding anniversary.
Lois said as a very young child that she wanted to be a “lady with a baby.” She was happiest being a homemaker. Her favorite season was winter in all its glory.
She was preceded in death by her husband, parents and her beloved sister Dorothy MacCarter. Dorothy was well-known in the area because she had twin boys and triplet boys. Lois was proud in recent years of being a great-great aunt to her late sister’s great-grandchildren.
Survivors are her sons Calvin J. (Chris) of Tennessee and their children Brian and Erin; Duncan (Kathleen) of Missoula, children Andrew and Benjamin and stepchildren Jackie, Brennan and Carson; Kirk (Anne) of Polson; Timothy (Gayle) of Los Angeles and their children Sombreuil, Calvin R. and Arrow; nephews Doug MacCarter (Mary Lynn) of Phoenix, Don MacCarter (Jane) of Livingston, Dean MacCarter (Monica) of Denver, Daryl MacCarter (Karen) of Boise, David MacCarter of Denver, Ken Malgren (Carmilla) of Boise, and Christine Malgren of Polson, and five great-grandchildren.
Services will held on Feb. 15 (today) at 11 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Polson. Memorials may be given to Feed the Children, P.O. Box 9, Oklahoma City, OK 73101-0009, or American Bible Society, 1865 Broadway, New York, NY 10023-7505,
The family thanks the staff at the St. Joseph Retirement Community in Polson and the Community Medical Center in Missoula for their caring attention to Lois.
Arrangements are by Grogan Funeral Home & Crematory of Polson. Condolences may also be sent to the family at www.groganfuneralhome.com