Shirley Josephine Kurtz Miletich, 84
Shirley Josephine Kurtz Miletich, 84, passed away Thursday, May 18, 2017, at her home.
Shirley was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on Aug. 6, 1932, where she grew up, graduated high school, graduated nursing school, and then married her sweetheart George Miletich Sr; they shared everything throughout their 63 years of marriage.
During the early years of her life after nursing school and marriage Shirley worked inpatient care and ER at Holyoke Hospital in Massachusetts while building a home and raising a family.
After a near fatal plane crash bordering their property, the family started looking for a safer place to live and the start of that journey brought them to Boise, Idaho, in the late 1970s. During their brief time in Boise Shirley worked at St. Luke’s Hospital.
Upon visiting the Flathead Valley in 1978/1979 Shirley and family moved to Kalispell and started to establish a life here. While helping build a home she worked at Kalispell Regional Medical Center for a number of years while also helping operate the family business ‘Music One Workshop’ which was established in 1981.
As mentioned earlier, Shirley and George were married for 63 years and shared everything together. Shirley enjoyed doing many things in the outdoors, she especially enjoyed fishing, and could cook a great meal out of just about anything that you caught. She was a constant hunting companion and took many trips around Montana, hunting various game and usually with these trips they would always take in as much Montana history as they could and always had something to tell you. Shirley and George wore out three darn good motorcycles touring the Northwest and Montana, and always returned with new stories of their discoveries and their experiences.
Shirley enjoyed target shooting and took it more seriously than she would let on, she attended Gunsite Pistol Academy in 1996 and learned to handle a revolver very well under the watchful eye of H. Davis.
Shirley was a meticulous housekeeper and seemed to always be able to keep her two cats ‘Rambo and Josie’ in line when nobody else would be able to, she was also a great cook and always had the right dish for the right time without fail. Shirley was a basketball fan and knew the rules better than many, and come playoff time she had a pretty good handle on what was going on.
Shirley had a strong faith in Jesus and her evening prayer was always “Thank you Lord Jesus for saving my Soul and granting me Eternal Life.”
After a courageous battle with cancer, Shirley passed away in George Sr.’s arms at their home Thursday, May 18.
The family would like to send many thanks to Dr. Andy Palchak and staff Mel and Sal.
A funeral service will be held for Shirley at 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 23, and will take place at Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home in Kalispell.