By HDN Staff
CHINOOK Hilda A. Starcher, 84, a longtime Blaine County educator, passed away Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001, at a Chinook nursing home of natural causes.
Funeral services will be 2 p.m. Friday in the Zion Lutheran Church in Chinook, with burial following in Kuper Memorial Cemetery.
Hilda was born Aug. 2, 1917, to August and Louise (Huetter) Mueller. She attended schools in Chinook and graduated from Chinook High School in 1936. She attended a commercial college in Great Falls from June until December 1936 and completed a secretarial and bookkeeping course.
She worked at the Deaconess Hospital as an assistant bookkeeper until entering Northern Montana College in 1938 to work towards her lifelong dream of being a teacher. Hilda began teaching in September of 1940 and taught at North Fork, Wing School and in the Chinook Schools from 1944 until retiring in 1975.
Hilda married Donald Starcher in 1942 in Chinook. In 1956, she competed her work at Northern Montana College for a bachelor's degree in elementary education.
Ranching was also a big part of her life, and in 1953, she and her husband purchased a ranch south of Chinook. They retired from the ranch in 1979 and bought a home in Chinook.
Hilda belonged to state and national reading associations and served several years as chairwoman of a section working on mental and physical disabilities in reading. She was a member of the MEA and lifetime member of NEA.
She was a lifelong member of the Zion Lutheran Church and served on Lutheran Women's zone and state organizations and attended some national conventions. She was a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, housewives and seniors bowling leagues, Delta Kappa Gamma and Bearpaw Chapter of NRTA in Havre.
Hilda enjoyed reading, gardening, mission work, dabbling in various crafts, ceramics and water colors. She wrote the news for the Sweet Memorial Nursing Home for many years and enjoyed working at the Blaine County Fair Food Booth for the VFW.
Hilda was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Don in 1980; two brothers, and two sisters.
She is survived by her sisters, Rosalie Warrick of Michigan, Helen Mueller of Chinook, Ella Fultz of Dillon and Louise Lorenzen of Brady; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
