By HDN Staff
ROSE MARIE BITZ
BIG SANDY Rose Marie Bitz, 64, died Sunday, March 25, 2001 at a Big Sandy medical center due to cancer.
Funeral services will be 10 a.m. Friday at the Holland and Bonine Funeral Chapel, with Pastor Ron Paulson officiating. Burial is to follow at the Big Sandy Cemetery. A luncheon will follow the graveside services at the VFW Club in Havre.
Bitz was born Oct. 9, 1936 in Yakima, Wash. to George and Anna (Jacobs) Armstrong. She moved to western Montana as a young girl with her family and attended school in Kalispell. She was raised on a farm north of Shelby.
She married Victor Ray in 1954 and they moved to Hale, Mo. to farm. He died in 1983 and she returned to Montana when her mother died in 1985. She remained in Havre.
She met Sampsel Bitz and they were married in 1985 in Havre. They lived, farmed and ranched west of Havre.
Bitz was a member of NMOCIA, Moose Lodge, Eagles, Montana-American Historians, Gun Owners of America, NRA and Walleyes Unlimited.
She enjoyed reading history, collecting stuffed animals and dolls, hunting and fishing.
She was preceded in death by her first husband, Victor Ray in 1983; daughter, Judy Ray; stepson, Chester Ray.
Survivors include her husband, Sampsel Bitz of Big Sandy; stepfather, John Roberts of Kalispell; daughter, Clara Brown of Bogard, Mo.; stepdaughter, Audrey J. Bitz of New Mexico; sons, George W. "Bill" Ray of Bogard, Mo., John L. Ray of Tina, Mo.; stepsons, Carl Ray of Tina, Mo., Charles Ray of Marshall, Mo., and David Stroh of California; brothers, John Roberts of Havre, Jim Roberts of Idaho; numerous aunts, uncles, cousins in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Missouri; 13 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; her dog, Missy Pooh.
Memorials may be made to the promotion of alternative medicine.
Services and arrangements are under the direction of Holland and Bonine Funeral Home.
