James Graham
James Bruce Graham, 88, passed away Feb. 24, 2015 at the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls.
He was born on March 30, 1926 in Kalispell to Byron H. Graham and Anna I. Duffy Graham and was raised on the family farm in the LaSalle area, overcoming the Great Depression, but living what he called a happy and carefree childhood.
The summer after graduating from Flathead High School in 1944, he worked horseback on a Forest Service trail crew, and then enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as an aerial engineer in the South Pacific.
After the war, he was a sheet metal apprentice in Kalispell, worked on Hungry Horse Dam as a coppersmith, and retired after 35 years of working in the fabrication shop at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant side by side with his twin brother Bob.
Jim married Ramona June Saurey in 1949, and they spent the next 65 years raising their family in Evergreen.
Jim raised flower and vegetable gardens, supplying many households with produce. He coached baseball and loved watching his grandchildren play sports. He valued the environment and wildlife, hunted and enjoyed plugging for bull trout from the Flathead River and fly fishing its tributaries for cutthroat. At the horseraces during the fair, his favorite place to sit in the grandstands was on the finish line. Perhaps most of all his pursuits, he loved to go huckleberry picking.
Jim was well known for his ability to repair and fabricate all kinds of mechanical and household items. He was politically well-informed, avidly followed the news, and had an uncanny ability to recall facts and figures. His sense of humor was wry and perceptive. He was patient, hardworking and generous. He said, “Don’t look back, what’s done is done, and what’s gone is gone.”
He was preceded in death by his parents, brothers Francis and Lawrence, and niece Linda.
He is survived by his wife Ramona; son Glenn and wife Shelley; daughters Cathleen and Mary Beth (Seaman) of Kalispell; daughter Colleen White and husband Clay, of Helena; grandchildren Scott Graham and wife Karen; great grandchildren Marlie and Ashlyn, of Star, Idaho; grandchildren Claire Graham, Jamie Graham, Gregory Seaman, Kayla Seaman and Eric Seaman, of Kalispell; brothers Byron Jr., of Ft. Worth, Texas, Robert, Neil and wife Lorraine, of Kalispell; and numerous nieces, nephews and friends.
A memorial gathering for friends and family to share their stories of Jim will be held at the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015, at 11:30 a.m. Tributes may be sent to the Shriners Hospital for Children, P.O. Box 2472, Spokane WA 99201.
The family extends its sincere appreciation to the staff at the Montana Veterans Home for their professional and loving care of Jim during the last five months. A note of condolence can be sent to the family at www.buffalohillfh.com.