Edna Kelch

Edna B. Kelch, 91, passed away Nov. 22, 2009, at Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell.

She was born April 10, 1918, in Galata, the daughter of Martin and Bertha (Wollan) Dukleth. As a small child her family moved to the Badrock area, south of Columbia Falls. She attended grade school at Badrock and Columbia Falls, until her senior year in high school when the family moved to their log house at the entrance of Tally Lake. She graduated from Flathead County High School in 1937.

Edna met and married Everett Kelch in the summer of 1937. Together they built a home near her parents and farmed and cleared the land.

When World War II began, the family moved to Seattle to work. After the war, they moved back to the Flathead to their home in the Bissell community. The family farmed, milked cows and sold the cream. In the fall, they cut Christmas trees.

Edna baked bread, cakes, cookies and pies and enjoyed cooking large dinners. She also canned fruit and had a large garden every year.

In 1969, she and Everett divorced, and she went to work at the Viking Lodge in Whitefish as a housekeeper for about 15 years. She later worked at the Snowline Tree Company, where she made wreaths and Christmas rope. While working at the Viking Lodge, she started a love for china painting and made many plates, dishes and cups.

Edna sold the farm in 1992 and moved to Lake Blaine to be near her daughter Sherry. She belonged to the Stillwater Grange and Bissell Home Demonstration Group and volunteered with 4-H projects.

She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers Owen Dukleth and William Dukleth and their wives; grandson Jason Madsen; sons Larry Kelch and Robert Kelch; infant son John Kelch; and son-in-law Dave Creighton.

She is survived by daughters Ellen Creighton and Sherry Madsen and husband Gerald, all of Kalispell; son Lloyd Kelch and wife Marcia, of Columbia Falls; daughter-in-law Evelyn Kelch, of Polson; 17 grandchildren; 48 great grandchildren; and 10 great great grandchildren.

Funeral services were held Nov. 27, 2009, at Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Chapel, with Pastor Tim Bartholomew officiating. Burial followed at C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery.