Norma Finberg: Matriarch of Columbia Falls basketball

That was her life, seeing that other people were happy. And happiness in Norma’s world was watching her family coach and play sports and making sure that no one ever went hungry. Ever.

She was a fantastic mother, grandmother and friend, and the grandstands at Columbia Falls High School will never be quite the same without her, family members said.

Finberg passed away from complications of a lung ailment at the Kalispell Regional Medical Center on Feb. 23. She was 84.

Finberg was born Norma Nipp, the third of five children, during a blizzard on Jan. 14, 1931, at the family farm in Tenstrike, about 15 miles north of Bemijdi, Minn.

Growing up on a farm was hard but rewarding work, and she brought that ethic with her when she married Math Finberg on Aug. 5, 1950. The couple moved to Columbia Falls in 1952. Math’s father, Christ, moved here from Minnesota as one of the original Plum Creek Timber Co. workers with founder D.C. Dunham in 1947. Math had a business degree and went to work at Plum Creek.

“They thought it would be a good place to raise a family,” Norma’s son Chris Finberg said.

All five of the Finbergs’ children, Cheryl, Chris, Craig, Cathy and Cary, grew up to be athletes. Their neighbor on Sixth Avenue East North had a basketball court on his garage, and the kids grew up shooting hoops there from grade school through high school. Norma watched them play and then watched her grandchildren and her great grandchildren after that.

“She cooked us a great big meal the day before she went into the hospital,” granddaughter Ciera Finberg said.

The Finbergs played all sports, but basketball was and still is the family’s passion. Craig, who passed away from cancer in 2009, played for the Portland Trail Blazers and is in the Hall of Fame at Montana State University.

Cary coaches both the Wildcat and Wildkat basketball teams and is in the University of Montana-Western Hall of Fame. Cathy also played for MSU, and Norma was almost always in the stands watching, even when they were in college, family members remembered.

Norma also loved to dance and was an excellent dancer.

“We got our athletic ability from her, that’s for sure,” Cary said.

“She never missed anything if she could help it,” Cheryl said. “It was all about family.”

Norma was also easy going, if sometimes to a humorous fault. Cathy recalled one time at a softball game when some kids were kicking up dust with their ATVs near the fields. Norma said something and the kids gave her the middle finger. Norma gave them her “finger” back — but it was her thumb.

She was a great cook but rarely followed a recipe, Cary said. Her freezer was always full of chocolate chip cookies. If a child or grandchild or a friend stopped by the house, the cookies were waiting.

“She treated people she just met like family,” Chris said.

Math left Plum Creek and leased the Columbia Bar in 1965. He partnered with Don and Norma Blades for a couple of years before buying them out in 1969.

In the early years, Math bartended at night and Norma held the day shift, but it wasn’t her favorite task. Back then, veterans from the Montana Veterans Home rode a bus to the bar twice a day, five days a week. Cathy recalled them giving her spare change, including half and silver dollars.

When her kids grew up, Norma took to raising her six grandchildren and four great grandchildren, with a fifth great grandchild on the way.

Those were special years. In 1999, Norma fell ill and had a tricky and rare open-heart surgery procedure at Stanford Hospital in California. Doctors gave her five years to live.

But Norma was a strong woman. She cooked with one child on her hip most of her adult life, and her love for her family gave her 16 more years to watch them play and grow and share meals — a life well lived by a woman who won’t soon be forgotten.

A viewing for Norma will take place at the Columbia Funeral Home in Columbia Falls on Sunday, March 1, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. followed by celebration of life at the Columbia Falls High School gym at 2 p.m. A second viewing will take place at the Columbia Funeral Home on Monday, March 2, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. followed by burial at Glacier Memorial Gardens, on U.S. 93 in Kalispell, at 11 a.m.

When the Columbia Falls basketball team traveled to Eureka in late January, Norma Finberg was there to cheer the team on. She also had a cooler full of ham sandwiches, handing them out to players, coaches and fans in the stands.

That was her life, seeing that other people were happy. And happiness in Norma’s world was watching her family coach and play sports and making sure that no one ever went hungry. Ever.

She was a fantastic mother, grandmother and friend, and the grandstands at Columbia Falls High School will never be quite the same without her, family members said.

Finberg passed away from complications of a lung ailment at the Kalispell Regional Medical Center on Feb. 23. She was 84.

Finberg was born Norma Nipp, the third of five children, during a blizzard on Jan. 14, 1931, at the family farm in Tenstrike, about 15 miles north of Bemijdi, Minn.

Growing up on a farm was hard but rewarding work, and she brought that ethic with her when she married Math Finberg on Aug. 5, 1950. The couple moved to Columbia Falls in 1952. Math’s father, Christ, moved here from Minnesota as one of the original Plum Creek Timber Co. workers with founder D.C. Dunham in 1947. Math had a business degree and went to work at Plum Creek.

“They thought it would be a good place to raise a family,” Norma’s son Chris Finberg said.

All five of the Finbergs’ children, Cheryl, Chris, Craig, Cathy and Cary, grew up to be athletes. Their neighbor on Sixth Avenue East North had a basketball court on his garage, and the kids grew up shooting hoops there from grade school through high school. Norma watched them play and then watched her grandchildren and her great grandchildren after that.

“She cooked us a great big meal the day before she went into the hospital,” granddaughter Ciera Finberg said.

The Finbergs played all sports, but basketball was and still is the family’s passion. Craig, who passed away from cancer in 2009, played for the Portland Trail Blazers and is in the Hall of Fame at Montana State University.

Cary coaches both the Wildcat and Wildkat basketball teams and is in the University of Montana-Western Hall of Fame. Cathy also played for MSU, and Norma was almost always in the stands watching, even when they were in college, family members remembered.

Norma also loved to dance and was an excellent dancer.

“We got our athletic ability from her, that’s for sure,” Cary said.

“She never missed anything if she could help it,” Cheryl said. “It was all about family.”

Norma was also easy going, if sometimes to a humorous fault. Cathy recalled one time at a softball game when some kids were kicking up dust with their ATVs near the fields. Norma said something and the kids gave her the middle finger. Norma gave them her “finger” back — but it was her thumb.

She was a great cook but rarely followed a recipe, Cary said. Her freezer was always full of chocolate chip cookies. If a child or grandchild or a friend stopped by the house, the cookies were waiting.

“She treated people she just met like family,” Chris said.

Math left Plum Creek and leased the Columbia Bar in 1965. He partnered with Don and Norma Blades for a couple of years before buying them out in 1969.

In the early years, Math bartended at night and Norma held the day shift, but it wasn’t her favorite task. Back then, veterans from the Montana Veterans Home rode a bus to the bar twice a day, five days a week. Cathy recalled them giving her spare change, including half and silver dollars.

When her kids grew up, Norma took to raising her six grandchildren and four great grandchildren, with a fifth great grandchild on the way.

Those were special years. In 1999, Norma fell ill and had a tricky and rare open-heart surgery procedure at Stanford Hospital in California. Doctors gave her five years to live.

But Norma was a strong woman. She cooked with one child on her hip most of her adult life, and her love for her family gave her 16 more years to watch them play and grow and share meals — a life well lived by a woman who won’t soon be forgotten.

A viewing for Norma will take place at the Columbia Funeral Home in Columbia Falls on Sunday, March 1, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. followed by celebration of life at the Columbia Falls High School gym at 2 p.m. A second viewing will take place at the Columbia Funeral Home on Monday, March 2, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. followed by burial at Glacier Memorial Gardens, on U.S. 93 in Kalispell, at 11 a.m.