Alice Olsen Eversole Gager

On Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015, Alice Olsen Eversole Gager passed away at the Village Health Care. On Nov. 10 she celebrated her 98th birthday. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, on Nov. 10, 1917, to Olaf Olsen and Bertha Mae Homer Olsen.

She was a loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great- grandmother. She was a friend to all she met.

She married Frank Rodney Eversole in Butte in 1935 and then moved to the coast during World War II where Rod worked in the shipyards. They came back to Montana to East Missoula where Rod started a cabinet shop.

Alice worked as a waitress, cook and did alterations in our home. She had the idea to start an Embroidery Shop so she could work for herself. She started searching for the monogram machines and tried teaching herself to use them.

She and Rod divorced in 1949 and moved, with her children, into Missoula. She continued to work several jobs while trying to finish raising her family.

in 1953 we moved to California where she could get the training she needed for her monogram shop. She worked at Champe Craft in Burbank, without pay, until she learned the proper technique and could turn out professional work. While there she did work for Warner Bros. and Disney Studios and embroidered Trigger and Trigger Jr. horseblankets for Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

We loaded up a trailer full of Bonnaz Embroidery machines and moved back to Missoula in 1955, and she opened Alice's Monogram Shop.

On Thanksgiving 1956 she married Glen Gard Gager, CEO/general manager for Lyon Construction Co. in Clinton. They lived in Clinton until Glen's retirement when they bought a home and moved to Flathead Lake. They were both active in the Elks Club and the VFW in Polson.

She kept up her monogramming in Polson and Missoula, and trained her daughter to operate the Bonnaz Machines.

In the 1980s and 1990s, she took care of Glen until he passed away, then moved to Butte to care for her sister and mother, sharing the time from Butte, in the winter, and Dayton, in the summer. She became lifetime members of the Butte Lady Elks, Butte Pioneer Club, and VFW club in both Butte and Polson. She also belonged to the Business and Professional Women's Club in Butte, Polson and Missoula. She had a Flathead Monster made and it was in the Dayton Days parade for several years.

In 2003 she sold the house in Dayton and moved to Missoula to Clark Fork Riverside until she moved to Village Health Care. While at CFR, she volunteered for the Missoula Carousel, painting on the ponies and pricing merchandise.

She was preceded in death by her parents; both of her husbands and brothers, Oliver from Butte and Robert John Olsen, from Union, Oregon, and sisters, Eleanor (Mickey) Gorman from Butte and Gladys Williams Brooks from Milton-Freewater, Oregon.

Survivors include her sons, Dennis Melvin Eversole of San Gabriel, California, Marvin Rodney Eversole from Superior and daughter Bertha Claire Eversole Croghan from Missoula; stepdaughters, Joan Gager McKinney from Spokane and Geraldine Gager Speaks from Spokane and her sister-in-law Verlea Olsen from Union. She is also survived by 14 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and several great-great-grandchildren.

Alice was a great inspiration to many of her friends, they will miss her sweet smile and gay laughter.

Services will be held Wednesday, Dec. 30, at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, 800 South Ave W., Missoula at 11 a.m. Adam Guenther, her grand-nephew, will conduct the services. Memorials may be sent to the Carousel of Missoula in Alice's name.


Read Alice Gager's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.