Lily E. Wells

Lily E. Wells, 96, a longtime resident of Whitefish, passed away July 2, 2004, at the North Valley Hospital in Whitefish of natural causes.

Lily was born Nov. 4, 1907, in Leith, North Dakota, the daughter of Peter and Katrina Hedman. The family lived for a short time in Wisconsin, then came to Eastern Montana in 1916, where they lived for several years. Lily attended schools there from the 3rd grade to about 8th grade. They then moved to Whitefish and Lily late graduated with the class of 1925.

She then took her teachers training in Dillon, Mont., and Cheney, Wash. She attended the Chicago Evangelistic Institute, where she took a degree in theology. She then received a degree from Wheaton College in speech.

Lily taught school here in the valley at the Canyon View School, Grandview School and at Kila. She later returned to the Chicago Evangelistic Institute, where she taught speech. She married Kenneth Wells, who was the dean of the music and speech department. Together with Kenneth she was an evangelist and sang duets with him. She took great pride in being an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Wells were married in Chicago, Ill. and were married for 50 years until his passing in 1997. Kenneth had two daughters, Gerrie and Jean, to whom she became a beloved step-mother and later a grandmother to six grandchildren.

She loved people and told many interesting stories about her travels to Montana in the covered wagon, and life on the prairie. She loved to sing and sang well almost to the end of her life. After moving to Riverside Assisted Living in Whitefish, she enjoyed playing piano, especially songs that her husband, Kenneth, had written and they had sung together.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth Wells, five sisters and two brothers.

Survivors include her sister, Helen Hedman, in Whitefish, step-daughter, Gerrie Peppler in Phoenix, Ariz. and six grandchildren; 13 nieces and nephews, including Carol Newbury and Gene Hedman, both of Whitefish; and many great nieces and nephews.

Funeral services were held July 7 at the Church of the Nazarene in Whitefish with the Rev. Cliff Purcell officiating. Burial followed at the Glacier Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Kalispell under the direction of Austin Funeral Home in Whitefish.