Budelle R Welander

Budelle Roberta Mack was born April 9th, 1954 in the old St. Patrick’s hospital and, after a short illness, left this world from the home she loved to join the ranks of loving angels on October 25th, 2016. The eldest, she was joined in life by a brother and three sisters. Her earliest years were in Missoula, her father moved his Singer Sewing shop to Bozeman in the early 60’s where she attended Emerson grade school. A few years later, her family returned to Missoula and lived on Larkspur Drive at time when the homes there reached their high point on the hill.
A graduate of Sentinel High School in ‘72 and an attendee at the University of Montana, she continued to develop a passion for people that would evolve into her first job at Quality Construction. She met and married Ray Aylesworth and moved to Ronan, there to be blessed with identical twin boys, Mackenzie and Joshua that catalyzed her life’s purpose to be a mom. She would return to Missoula as a single mom to work at Western States Insurance and there met her lifetime partner, Mark Welander, gaining in turn a daughter, Arwyn. Budelle and Mark wed at sunrise on September 22nd 1985 in their South 5th Street home and within 2 years gave birth to their final son, Alex.
First, foremost, and forever a mom, she loved all kids. She enjoyed needle point, walks along the Clark Fork, long conversations, playing cards, companionship with close friends, attending the horse races, times on the river, and family camping in their tipi on Rock Creek. Budelle could often be found spending her hours sitting on the front porch, always ready to make conversations or simply watching Missoula go by.
Budelle worked alongside Mark in their self-owned fabric construction business, first Blue Star Canvas and later Fabricon. She attended many downtown events, often with kids in tow, travelled to conferences and projects that took her to many points throughout North America. Traveling on projects and to conferences with her partner, Mark, was one of her greatest pleasures. Meeting new people from diverse global cultures was surely an occupational love, she enjoyed all she met and they in turn enjoyed meeting her. Many lifelong friends were made this way. The couple’s career included a five-year stint in Fairbanks, Alaska starting in 2005. Alaska couldn’t keep her from her beloved Montana and she returned back to Missoula to root on the Griz from home.
Budelle is preceded in death by her father, Elmer “Bud” Mack, uncle Lyle Bagnell, and uncle Dale Bagnell. Survivors include her husband, Mark, Missoula; daughter Arwyn (husband Mike, “Bones” Hamlin), Missoula; sons Mack of Seattle, WA; Josh (wife Amy, grandchildren Ben, Grace, and one on the way) of Castle Rock, CO; and Alex (fiancé Larissa), Missoula; her mother, Marlene, Mesa, AZ; three sisters Joleé, Coudersport, PA; Michelle, Billings; Stephanie, Dickenson, ND; and a brother, Jeff, Billings.
Services will be held at Garden City Funeral Home in Missoula at 2pm on Tuesday, November 1st with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to your favorite charity for Budelle.
She loved us all far more than we know.