Betty Kane

Betty Kane died Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. Born in Norfolk, England, on Feb. 28, 1929, she was the eldest of five children. Her sisters, Joan, Daisy and Shirley, and brother, Sidney, lived with their parents, Pearl and Philip, on the family farm. Betty also had a brother from her mother's previous marriage, Robert, who lived with grandparents Charles and Alice Hazell.

She married John Louis Plute in 1945. John Plute was an MP in the U.S. Army stationed in England. Betty traveled to America from England with 300 other girls, all married to U.S. soldiers. She was admitted through Ellis Island and then traveled by train to Butte. After the war, John worked as a driller in the mines. She told her sons, Edward and Daniel, later that she went from one war zone to another since Butte was in the middle of a strike at the mines when she arrived. John passed away in 1953 and Betty remained in Butte for several years. The family eventually moved to Missoula in 1960.

In 1970, she married Don Kane and moved to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, until September 1984. Betty and Don moved back to Missoula at that time. Don Kane passed away after a long battle with cancer and Betty remained in Missoula with her family.

Betty made her home at the Clark Fork Riverside, where she had many friends and was a member of Gracie's Angels. This group knits hundreds of hats and booties for babies and donates them to Community Medical Center. They also make items for the Poverello Center and various other groups.

She was a loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She loved to garden and grow flowers. She also loved John Wayne movies and watched them repeatedly.

Survivors include sons, Edward (Laura) Plute and Dan (Linda Rooney) Plute; grandsons, Matthew (Wendy) Plute, Scott (Shaula) Plute and Nathan (Amy) Plute; grand-grandsons, Alexander and Logan Plute, Warren Plute, Tanner and Bridger Olson and Tyler Guinard; and great-granddaughters, Jade Kraus and Libby Panzeri, Kenzie Buhler, and Shauna and Megan Dillinger.

Betty was preceded in death by her granddaughter, Danni Panzeri; brother, Robert Hazell; and sister, Daisy Parker.

Read Betty Kane's Obituary and Guestbook.