By HDN Staff
ESTHER MCGILLIS
ROCKY BOY Esther McGillis, 69, died Sunday, April 15, 2001, of rheumatoid arthritis and internal bleeding.
Wake service will be 7 p.m. Thursday at Rocky Boy Catholic Church. Funeral service is set for 10 a.m. Friday at Rocky Boy Catholic Church with John Gilbert Meyers officiating. Burial is to follow at Rocky Boy Cemetery.
McGillis was born May 29. 1931 to Joseph and Mary (Bear Walker) McGillis at Babb. She attended schools at Babb and Rocky Boy.
In 1950, she married Charles Daniels at East Glacier. They later divorced. In 1980, she married Wayne Halcro in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. They later divorced.
McGillis taught Native American arts and crafts at the Native American Center in Seattle. She later became a warehouse laborer, working in both Washington and Idaho. She returned to Montana in 1996 and lived at Prairie View Manor in Big Sandy to be near her children.
McGillis enjoyed attending powwows and participating in round dance throughout Montana, Idaho, Washington, Minnesota and Canada. She often helped with traditional feasts.
Her hobbies included sewing, arts and crafts, teepee making, fishing and participating in Native American song and dance.
She was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers and one sister.
Survivors include her daughter, Judy Ann Daniels of Yakima, Wash.; son, Danny Charles Daniels of Great Falls; sisters, Dorothy Gopher of Great Falls, Ethel Wallowing Bull of Pocatello, Idaho, and Evelyn Rehfield of Astoria, Ore.; brother, William McGillis of Great Falls; one granddaughter.
Services and arrangements are under the direction of Holland and Bonine Funeral Home.
