Anne Stiegler Benson

Anne Stiegler Benson, the first child of Harry and Anna Stiegler, was born April 21, 1921, and raised on their Grass Valley ranch near Missoula. She studied at Grass Valley School, graduated from Missoula County High School in 1939 and attended the University of Montana. Active in 4-H, Anne won numerous awards, including the 1939 4-H National Canning Championship and became a local leader in the organization.

She married Otto Benson on May 3, 1941, and they raised two children while running the Orchard Homes Dairy. Anne kept the dairy records and helped deliver milk door-to-door. She served the Orchard Homes Country Life Club, Women's Club and Social Circle, and was a member of the Electa Chapter of the Eastern Star for 72 years.

Her involvement in the 21 Club, a home demonstration club, led to a lifelong association with close friends and a bridge club. Although her mother emigrated to the United States from Switzerland, Anne deferred to Otto's Swedish ancestry and helped host VASA events at the Bensons' farm. She also hosted her daughter Nancy's wedding reception as well as her granddaughter Eden's marriage and granddaughter Adrienne's wedding reception at the farm.

When her son Bruce returned from college and changed the farm to a bedding plant and vegetable business, Anne helped transplant plants in the spring, nurture them through the summer and fall, and sell them at the farm and Missoula Farmers Market, for which she also served as a board member. In her later years, she liked to visit with customers who brought their children to the farm to experience on-the-farm grocery shopping as they had when their parents had brought them along as children.

Always willing volunteers, Anne and Otto joined the Rural Fire District when it started serving the Orchard Homes area. She answered the department's phone during fires. Anne also shared her culinary talent with friends and relatives, preparing big family dinners and baking hundreds of cookies to share every year. Her divinity and fudge were legendary, and she won blue ribbons at the fair for her sponge cakes. Family members kept track of annual events on her artistically sequined calendars.

With farm management in Bruce's capable hands, Otto and Anne enjoyed cruise ship travel, experiencing 28 cruises through the Caribbean and Panama Canal, to Hawaii and Alaska, along the Mexican coast and the Nile in Egypt.

Anne was preceded in death by her brother, John Stiegler; and sister, Mercedes Stiegler. She is survived by her husband, Otto; son, Bruce; daughter, Nancy Hopkins and her husband Steve of West Linn, Ore.; and granddaughters, Eden Hopkins and her husband Mark Ashton of Snohomish, Wash., and Adrienne Hopkins and her husband Kirk Henderson and their son Camas of Missoula. She lived her last three years at The Springs in Missoula and her family thanks the Memory Care caregivers for their warmth and Anne's excellent care.

A celebration of Anne's life will be held at the farm mid-July next summer. Donations in Anne's name may be made to the charity of one's choice or to the Hospice Foundation

Read Anne Benson's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.