Doris Celestia LaRoque

Doris Celestia LaRoque, 101, passed away peacefully, Friday, Dec. 13, 2013, of natural causes at her home in Missoula.

Doris Celestia Green was born Oct. 7, 1912, to a homesteader dad, Charles Green, and her homesteader Swedish immigrant mom, Vendella Anderson, on the family farm house in McKenzie County, N.D. She had six siblings, Everett, Leonard, Leatha and her three younger sisters Juanita, Ethel and Helen.

She had so many memories and stories about her childhood. She started a journal about 15 years ago and it would seem only appropriate to share the very words she wrote:

"I can remember us older kids having to go for walk each time the last three were born.

"I was around 6-years-old and having fun with a little pig in the water trough before the men came with their horses for a drink after working the fields all afternoon. The horses refused to drink and I had to remove the water and pump fresh water in it so the horses could drink that evening.

"When I was about 5-years-old Dad built an additional full basement with three more rooms. I can still hear them horses snorting away early in the morning digging and hauling out the dirt.

"I must tell about my first year as a first grader. I went to Elk School about 10 miles from home by horse and bobsled in the winter time with straw in the box and canvas to cover the top. Mother would put big hot rocks she heated on the wood stove and place them in the straw to keep us kids warm.

"We loved Uncle Bealer whose land was in the northwest corner beyond where the dam is. On his land there was a great hill that we had done a lot of skiing and sliding down. Uncle Bealer brought his team of horses there many times and would take us back up the hill in his bobsled so we could ski down again. Leonard (my brother) made our skis.

"I couldn't have been much more than 3-years-old when Dad bought a brand new Model T Ford for $600 with a roll top and side curtains. I learned how to drive a car when I was 6. There was really a lot more to learn about driving a Model T than the cars now.

"The first car Dad bought with roll up windows was a Chrysler. He paid $1, 200 cash for it and of course we thought the glass roll up windows were great. Everybody else in the neighborhood still had their Model T Fords or horses. When we were at church so many people had to sit in the car and roll the windows up and down.

"When we were small children and Dad was still farming with horses before the tractor came in use, he always had no less than 36 horses on the farm.

"I was only between 6 and 8-years-old when I first harnessed a head of four horses, hooked them up to a disk and went disking in the field. I would bridle them by standing on a bucket to put their collars and harnesses on. I would walk under their belly to get the belly strap hooked up.

"Most all the Greens homesteaded nearby. We kids used to call it Greensville.

"My Grandma Green lived and died in the log house that was built at the time they homesteaded. She died at the age of 99 years and 6 months.

"When we were children the spring water in Alexander, N.D., was just west of where it is now in Alexander near where the livery stable was and the water would run into a big round water trough made from wood and that is where the horses would drink before going to the barn. The whole town got their water from this spring mostly hauling it in buckets.

"The telephone line was put through in 1924. My folks left to Ohio in their new Chrysler. While the folks were gone the gang of men putting in the telephone line asked us girls if we'd cook a meal for them which we did for $1 a meal for eight men. We thought we were rich.

"I was 17 when I traveled to Lake McDonald in Glacier Park for the summer as a nanny for a Williston couple. It is there that I learned to swim and fend off the bears.

"From 1912 to about 1920 we had no graded roads. We just took off across the country north down to the Missouri River by horse and wagon. I remember crossing the Missouri river on a ferry into Williston by pulling a rope before the bridge was built."

Doris met her lifetime partner, Ernest LaRoque, while waitressing at a Whistle Stop restaurant in Snowden. It was there when she got her first kiss that made her hair stand up on her neck.

During the dirty '30s, jobs in North Dakota were limited. Everybody needed coal for heat, so Doris and Ernie became coal miners for a time. Finally when the rain came they went back to farming on the family farm. They spent a lot of time square dancing and gathering with family. Doris was an amazing seamstress. She made all her boys clothes and one of a kind square-dance attire.

Doris and Ernie moved to Missoula in 1966 and enjoyed all the things about living in western Montana. They loved to camp and boat the Flathead Lake at Blue Bay. They spent a lot of time with their grandchildren. They were all such a major part of her life. They would travel to Arizona during the winter meeting family and friends creating lifelong memories.

In 1976 she and her son David went to Malmö, Sweden, to meet her first cousins and see where her mother was raised.

In July, 2007 the Greens and LaRoques had a family reunion at Woods Bay, celebrated in honor of Doris, her sister Ethel and Eldora, Ernie's sister.

On Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, Doris celebrated in grand style her 100th birthday where all her grandkids and their families came to join her celebration along with many friends at River Ridge Apartment in Missoula.

Always a Griz fan, she celebrated at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in October 2012 and attended the football game. Her name was put up the big board as the designer of the Monty Bear Hat and her 100th birthday. She had a blast!

In the last 15 years of her life she had some very busy hands. She made quilts, dollies, snowflakes, pajamas and robes for her family members. Her last quilt was made up of

25 blocks for each of her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. The finishing touch for her last block was for her last great-great-grandchild, Delkan Reynolds, born Oct. 16, 2013.

In her final years she always wondered what was beyond the farthest star. What did it all mean? She has found her answer in the heavens with her passed family and friends. She is having the time of her life!

She has left a cherished legacy for her family and friends, she was truly an amazing woman. Doris was preceded in death by her husband, Ernie Laroque and her son, Gary LaRoque.

She is survived by her sister, Ethel Irwin of Minot, N.D.; her son Jerry LaRoque and his wife, Tisha of Columbia Falls; her son David LaRoque and his wife, Tammy of Missoula. She had eight grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren. She had many nieces, nephews and cousins.

Doris requested no service. A celebration of her life will take place this summer at Flathead Lake and on the farm in Alexander, N.D. In lieu of flowers you can make a memorial in her name to Partners Hospice of Missoula.

Read Doris LaRoque's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.