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CLEO DICKINSON, Obituary

Cleo Katherine Dickinson, 85, of Havre, retired schoolteacher, died Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2002, at a Havre care facility of natural causes.

Vigil followed by a rosary is 7 p.m. Monday at St. Jude. Funeral Mass is 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Jude's with the Rev. Robert D. Grosch officiating.

Luncheon is to follow funeral Mass at the St. Jude Catholic Parish Center. Burial is to follow luncheon at the Hillcrest Lawn Mausoleum in Great Falls.

Cleo was born Jan. 28, 1917, to Clarence and Bessie (Young) Hogan at Great Falls. She attended Franklin Grade School in Great Falls and graduated from Great Falls High School. She attended Northern Montana College in Havre, graduating in 1937 with a lifetime teaching certificate.

On July 6, 1943, she married Harry Evans Dickinson at Holy Family in Great Falls. This past July they celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary.

Cleo was a lifelong teacher, starting in a one-room schoolhouse in Antelope. Her students there performed "The Mikado," an opera. Cleo loved music, playing the piano and organ and singing in church choirs. She taught in Great Falls at the Roosevelt School and St. Gerald's School.

When the family moved to Havre, she taught at St. Jude's. She retired in 1981 as the first lay principal at St. Jude's/Havre Central Junior High. She was not only principal, but taught in the classroom as well.

Her love of education led her back to the other side of the desk in 1972 when she returned to NMC to complete her bachelor's degree in elementary education.

Through her teaching she touched the lives of many, and it was her hope to make each better for that. "Mrs. D" shared her time and talent and her sparkling smile.

She is preceded in death by her sister, Dorothy Young of Great Falls.

Survivors include her husband, Harry of Havre; children, Pamela (Walter) Greenwood of Everett, Wash., Candace (Carl) Gross of Willowbrook, Ill.; Gregory Dickinson of Havre and Melanie (Jeff) Nelson of Keller, Texas; sister, Helen Haynes of Salem, Ore.; brother, C. Lester Hogan of Atherton, Calif.; nine grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and one great-grandchild on the way.

Memorials in Cleo's honor may be made to, St. Jude School, 440 Seventh Ave., Havre, MT 59501, or to a charity of one's choice.

Services and arrangements are under the direction of the Holland and Bonine Funeral Home.

 

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