By HDN Staff
Florence M. Vande Sandt, 96, died Thursday, April 26, 2001 at a Havre hospital of natural causes.
Funeral services are 10 a.m. Monday at the Messiah Lutheran Church with Pastor Tim Hauge officiating. Burial will follow at the Highland Cemetery.
Vande Sandt was born Feb. 4, 1905 in Arthur, N.D. to Herbert and Anna (Clawiter) Shafer. She moved to Montana with her parents in 1911. They homesteaded 20 miles north of Gildford.
She attended country school and high school in Havre. While in Havre, she boarded at the Almas family home. She remembered an underground passage that led to what is now Havre Beneath the Streets.
She married Carl Vande Sandt on Nov. 13, 1925 in Fort Benton. They farmed and ranched north of Gildford.
They remained on the farm until his death in 1956. She moved to Gildford in 1957. In 1961, she moved to Havre.
Vande Sandt enjoyed horses, rodeos, gardening, sewing, quilting, crocheting, playing cards and bingo.
She liked to attend senior citizens activities and family get-togethers.
She moved to the Northern Montana Care Center in July 2000 so she could play bingo twice a week instead of just once.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Carl Vande Sandt; two brothers, Kenneth Shafer and Wayne Shafer.
Survivors include her children, Alice V. Wong of Honolulu, Hawaii, Gilbert "Bud" Vande Sandt and Lloyd "Hap" Vande Sandt, both of Gildford, and Marjorie Bourne of Ethridge; 10 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild.
Memorials may be made to North Central Senior Citizens Center or a charity of one's choice.
Services and arrangements are under the direction of Holland and Bonine Funeral Home.
