Helen Brumwell Evans

Helen Brumwell Evans died March 28, 2006 at the Beartooth Hospital and Health Center in Red Lodge.

Helen was born May 15, 1915, in Moosejaw, Sask., Canada, to Jeanette and George Brumwell. When she was five, her family moved to Whitefish, where Helen graduated from high school.

She attended the University of Montana and graduated with degrees in home economics and English, with a minor in chemistry. She taught for two years in Chinook until 1941, when she married her college sweetheart, William Richard Evans, of Roundup.

In 1952 they settled in Red Lodge to raise their three children. At about that time, Helen was a founding member of the Red Lodge Hiking Club and the Great Books Reading Group. Between 1971 and 1981, Bill's work took them to Oregon and Hawaii. Helen worked for a small Oregon newspaper, was a docent at the Portland Art Museum, and completed a master gardener's course.

On their return to Red Lodge, Helen was involved in many social and civic organizations. She was chairman of the Library Board and an active member of the Garden Club, P.E.O., Habitat for Humanity and the Red Lodge Community Church.

As president of the Hospital Board of Directors, she set up the committee that negotiated the purchase of the hospital for the Red Lodge community and continued her service on the Beartooth Hospital Foundation Board for several more years. In 2004 she was the recipient of the Karas Award for outstanding contributions to healthcare.

Helen was preceded in death by her husband.

She is survived by her children: Dick Evans and his wife Diane, of Eagle River, Alaska, Janet Anderson, of Bozeman, and Dave Evans and his wife Kelley, of Red Lodge; her Swiss exchange student daughter, Katherin Ammari; grandchildren Erika Flattum, Karen Dodd, Sarah Anderson, Peter Anderson, Jeff Evans, Zach and Lee Joiner and Jordan Going; and great grandchildren Jared and Ally Flattum, Allison Stancavage and Samantha Dodd.

Funeral services were held April 1, 2006, at the Red Lodge Community Church. Interment followed in the Red Lodge Cemetery.

Memorials may be given to Beartooth Hospital Foundation, Box 590, Red Lodge ,MT 59068 or to Red Lodge Carnegie Library, Box 1068, Red Lodge MT 59068.