MARGARET GARDNER obituary

Margaret C. Gardner, 101, retired school teacher, died Sunday Oct. 19, 2003, at a Havre care facility of natural causes.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated 11 a.m. Friday at the Holland and Bonine Funeral Chapel with the Rev. Marcel Vogel officiating. A committal service will

follow the Mass at the Highland Cemetery in Havre.

Margaret was born June 9, 1902, to Alexander and Ellen (Divine) Gardner in Duluth, Minn. Her mother died shortly after her birth, so she went to live with her sister and brother-in-law, Helen and Frank Bergren in Hogeland, and later years at Lakeside. When in Hogeland, she attended the Silverbow Grade School. She then attended and graduated from the Harlem High School. She attended college in Dillon and then Northern Montana College, graduating with a teaching degree.

Her first position teaching was at the Rattle Snake School south of Chinook. She then taught at the Twin Bridges Orphanage for four years and moved to Fort Peck, where she taught first grade for 30 years. During her summer breaks from school she would visit the home of Helen and Frank Bergren. She moved to Kalispell and retired from teaching. In 1998 she moved to Havre to be closer to family and lived at the Northern Montana Care Center Assisted Living.

Margaret enjoyed photography, embroidery and tatting. She also enjoyed the senior's center in Kalispell. She was a member of the St. Jude Thaddeus Church in Havre.

Margaret is preceded in death by her parents Alexander and Ellen (Divine) Gardner, and all of her brothers and sisters.

Survivors include her many nieces and nephews, Helen McGuire of Chinook, Eloise Hern of Seattle, Wash., Vernice Doughten of Chinook, Bernard Bergren of Havre and Frank Bergren, Jr. of Florence, Ore.; and her many "children" through the years.

Memorials may be made to a person's choice.

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