By HDN Staff
ALICE SHEPHERD
CHESTER Alice Marie (Nelson) Shepherd, 75, died on Easter Sunday, April 15, 2001, at a Great Falls hospital after a 5-year struggle with diabetes and a heart ailment.
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Friday at the Chester United Methodist Church. Burial will follow at the Chester Cemetery.
Shepherd was born Oct. 27, 1925 in Missoula to Otto Nelson and Esther Montelius. She grew up in Missoula, received her education there, and graduated from Hellgate High School in 1943.
She continued her schooling at the University of Montana in Missoula for a short time, then accepted a teaching position at Rudyard. She taught commercial classes at the high school for two years. She moved back to Missoula and took a bookkeeping job at Buttrey's Department Store.
She met Neil Shepherd in Missoula and they were married there on Oct. 26, 1946. They soon moved to Chester and worked on the Shepherd farm. They built a home in Chester in 1952. She worked part time at the abstract, assessor and treasurer offices in Chester and was an occasional substitute teacher at Chester School.
The Shepherds sold their home in Chester in 1972, moved to Great Falls and maintained their farm operation at Chester. She was offered and took a job with the Cascade County Treasurer's Office and worked there until 1982, when the Shepherds moved back to Chester. For the next five years, she worked part time at the Liberty County Treasurer's Office in Chester.
Shepherd enjoyed RV camping and the couple's winter trips to California. They were longtime members of the Good Sams Club.
She was a longtime member of the Chester United Methodist Church and once served as church secretary. She was a member of Chester American Legion Auxiliary, Liberty County Broken Mountain Genealogical Society, Joplin Eastern Star, Great Falls Elks Lodge and Great Falls Shriners Club. She served as a chaperone to Girls State for several years.
Her hobbies included knitting, crocheting and embroidery, collecting music boxes and spoons, bowling and golfing when younger, and reading. She also enjoyed cooking.
She was preceded in death by her parents.
Survivors include her husband, Neil Shepherd of Great Falls; son, Roger Shepherd of Chester; daughter, Dawn Marie Lockwood of Helena; sister, June Koepplin of Missoula; eight grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; two cousins; numerous nieces and nephews.
Memorials may be made to the American Diabetes Association or the Chester United Methodist Church.
Arrangements are by Rockman Funeral Chapel, Chester.
