By HDN Staff
MAVIS BOYCE
Mavis I. Boyce, 81, died Wednesday, Dec. 22, 1999, at a Havre hospital of natural causes.
Memorial services will be held at 10;30 a.m. Monday at Van Orsdel Methodist Church with the Rev. Kathy Young officiating.
Boyce was born Oct. 27, 1918, in Big Sandy to Stephen Charles and Sadie Grace (Haymaker) Boyce of Warrick. Before she started grade school the family moved to Glasgow. She attended elementary school and high school in Glasgow.
Later she received a teaching certificate from Northern Montana College in Havre. She taught in rural schools for six years and then after more summer classes she taught in Libby two years before settling in as fourth grade teacher in Deer Lodge in 1946. She continued her education gaining her master's degree in education from the University of Montana. She studied at Northern, Western, Bozeman, Missoula, Harvard, Berkeley and Bellingham. She lived and taught school in Deer Lodge for 31 years.
In 1977, she took early retirement to help care for her parents at their ranch south of Havre.
In 1964, her fellow teachers elected her to be a member of Delta Kappa Gamma. She was very active in this group and after her retirement she transferred her membership to the Havre Chapter. She was a member of Van Orsdel United Methodist Church, Friends of the Library, Pioneer Member of the Havre-Hill County Library Foundation, Retired Teachers and American Association of University Women. She served two terms on the William K. Kohrs Memorial Library Board and two terms on the Havre-Hill County Library Board. She was a daily volunteer at the Havre-Hill County Library. She was honored as exemplary volunteer by the Montana State Library. She donated more than 1,000 hours of her time to the library each year.
Boyce enjoyed reading, listening to opera, and promoting education.
She was preceded in death by her parents, a sister, Rosie Lowry and brothers, John, Mickey and Ken.
Survivors include sisters, Betty LaBrie of Tacoma, Wash. and Donna Read of Garden Valley, Calif.; brothers, Buck of Paris, Texas and Robert (Bud) of Warrick; and numerous nieces and nephews.
