Margaret Graff

Margaret Graff

Margaret Elizabeth Graff, 91, a Hi-Line farmwife who enjoyed gardening, cooking, baking, reading, quilting, bird watching, and traveling, died of natural causes Monday, Nov. 14, at the Chester nursing home.

Vigil prayers will be 5 p. m. Sunday, Nov. 20,, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Chester. Funeral Mass will be 11 a. m. Monday, at St. Mary's.

Burial will be at Chester Cemetery with a reception to follow at the church. Arrangements are by Rockman Funeral Chapel in Chester. Memorials may be given to St. Mary's Church or Wheat Country Estates.

Margaret was born June 9, 1920, in Kellogg, Minn., to John and Margaret Marking. She married Eldon Graff on Nov. 25, 1939. They farmed northeast of Chester and raised a family of 11. They retired in 1990, and moved into Chester in 1996. Eldon died in 2000. Margaret moved to the Wheat Country Estates in 2007, then transferred to nursing care in 2010.

She was active at

St. Mary's Church, the Altar Society and Bible study groups. She was a member of the Joplin Birthday Club and the Bear's Den Home Demo Club and had served as a 4-H leader.

She was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; an infant son, Richie; a son-in-law, Audie; two sisters, Agnes and Catherine; and three brothers, Ted, Elmer and Ervin.

Survivors are her eight daughters, Joanne Standiford (Gary) of Chester, Marilyn Collins of Bozeman, Jean May (Ephraim) of Cowley, Alberta, Patti Shepherd (Rod) of Arlington, Texas, Mary Gibbons (Tom) of Big Sandy, Betty Mace (Butch Lansing) of Kalispell, Teresa Wehr (David) of Billings, and Janice Fauque (Jeff) of Cut Bank; three sons, Gerry Graff (Cindy) of Bozeman, Don Graff (Shelly) of Belgrade, and Tom Graff (Pam) of Chester; one sister, Dorothy Weir of Medford, Wisc. ; 32 grandchildren; 36 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.