By HDN Staff
GEORGE VANDE VEN
CHINOOK George Vande Ven, 87, died on Dec. 15, 2000 of natural causes while visiting his son for the holidays in Missoula.
Rosary will be 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church. Funeral Mass will be 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Gabriel's with burial to follow in the Kuper Memorial Cemetery.
Vande Ven was born in a homesteader's dugout about seven miles north of Chinook on Oct. 28, 1913 to Henry and Ella Vande Ven. In his early years, Vande Ven attended yhe country school and church of Hollandville.
His father started a coal mine after proving up on his homestead and Vande Ven and his brother helped run the mine. His brother died of appendicitis in 1930 and his father was killed in a mining accident a short time later. Vande Ven operated the mine until 1949.
In 1933, he married Pearl Smith Marlow.
During World War II, Vande Ven worked at the shipyards in Tacoma, Wash. During the 1940s and '50s, he owned and operated the Elk Bar and Restaurant in Chinook and the Pastime Bar in Chinook. He later farmed south of Chinook.
Upon his retirement from farming and ranching in the late 1960s, Vande Ven worked as a salesman for Taylor Motors and the International Harvester dealership. He was on city council for many years and was mayor of Chinook for eight years.
He was an avid booster of Chinook sports, particularly girls basketball.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Pearl (Smith Marlow) Vande Ven in 1984; his parents; brother, John Vande Ven; sister, Nelly Jornes.
Survivors include his sons, Ronald Vande Ven of Missoula and John Vande Ven of Lincolnshire, Ill.; sister, Lorraine Scott of Shoreline, Wash.; five grandchildren; one great-grandson.
Memorials may be made to the Chinook Senior Citizens' Center, Sweet Memorial Nursing Home or to St. Gabriel's Catholic Church.
Edwards Funeral Home of Chinook is in charge of arrangements.
