Martha Foote Jones, 100, of Missoula, died August 28, 2020, at Community Medical Center in Missoula.
She was born the second child of three girls, at home on January 14,1920, in Colchester, McComb Township, McDonough County, Illinois. She must have been born during a blizzard because the doctor forgot to register her birth at the time. She was actually 21 years old when she received her birth certificate in 1941, needing it for employment at Douglas Aircraft Company in Southern California.
While working there she met and later married William J. Jones Jr. They moved to NW Montana after retiring in 1967. They enjoyed many years with their ever-growing family hiking, huckleberry picking, snowmobiling, hunting, fishing and camping. Bill passed in Kalispell December 22, 1997. Martha volunteered at KRH and also the local foodbank to keep busy after his passing.
While in Montana she lived in Olney, Lakeside, Kalispell, Haugan finally moving to Missoula in 2016. She continued to meet neighbors and make friends on her almost daily walks in her neighborhood.
She was a very special woman whose greatest joy was giving of herself. One could say she was the last of the Pioneer Women. She had many needlecraft talents: Knitting, crocheting, sewing, and quilting. She was an avid gardener and had beautiful flower gardens and a huge vegetable garden. She was unsurpassed in the kitchen - canning, cooking, baking, and candy making.
She freely taught others what she knew. She was a great resource for just about anything. She loved sharing herself with all of her family and friends always having time to play a game, help with making a skirt, altering a dress or helping a friend with a sewing challenge.
In her 80's she even learned how to use a computer allowing her to keep in touch via Facebook and email with folks not in the area. Many traveled to participate in a week-long celebration of her 100th birthday which everyone but her thought a real milestone.
She will be truly missed and fondly remembered as a most warm, fun, cordial, gracious, loving and devoted wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-aunt, great-great-grandmother, and great-great-aunt to many children by friends and loved ones.
A celebration of her life has not been planned at this time.