By HDN Staff
GERALDINE Sarah J. "Joe" Woods, 105, died Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2001, at a Great Falls nursing home.
A graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday at the Geraldine Cemetery. A memorial service will be held at a later date.
Sarah was born Feb. 19, 1896, in Saxenburg, Pa., to James and Mary Brewer. The family came west in 1904 to the Eagle Butte area out of Fort Benton. Joe was a telephone operator in Loma and worked in Great Falls for the Strain family.
In 1920, she homesteaded in the Bear Paw Mountains. in November of 1924, she married Walter Woods in Salt Lake City. They lived in San Francisco, where she was a telephone operator. In 1933, they moved to Kalispell to start the Woods Insurance Agency and to run a furniture store with Walter's family.
Walter died in Phoenix in 1946, and Joe returned to Fort Benton to live and to care for her mother. She later moved to Great Falls and stayed at the Davenport Nursing Home for health reasons.
Joe was an avid golfer and the Woods family was very active in developing the Buffalo Jump Golf Course in Kalispell.
She was preceded in death by six brothers and three sisters.
Survivors include 18 nieces and nephews, including Margie Salo, Betty Stephenson and Bernice Beck, all of Great Falls.
Benton Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.
