DESTIE BOVEE obituary

GREAT FALLS - Destie Coolidge Bovee, 92, died Monday, Nov. 1, 2004, at a Great Falls hospital as the result of a stroke.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation at 600 Third Ave. N. in Great Falls. A luncheon

reception will follow in the parish hall.

Destie was born on July 15, 1912, at the Spotted Horse Mine near Maiden to Edwin "Hardrock" Coolidge and Destie O. Coolidge. In 1919, her family moved to Lewistown, where Destie attended elementary and junior high school. The family moved to Great Falls in 1925 and she attended Great Falls High School. She graduated in 1930. Following high school, she studied at the University of Washington until a knee injury forced her to return to Montana. During the next two years, she attended and graduated from the Miss Woods' Kindergarten School in Minneapolis, Minn.

In 1935, she married Byron T. Holt and they moved to Oilmont and later to Havre, where Byron served as vice president of the Montana Gas Corp. In 1957, Destie and her family moved to Spokane, where she lived until 1972. Destie and Byron divorced in 1962. In 1972, she married Del. E. Lowry and returned to Great Falls. He died in 1980.

In 1997, Destie married her high school sweetheart, Arthur J. Bovee Jr. of Del Mar, Calif. They split their time between Del Mar and Great Falls for several years and returned to Great Falls permanently in 2001.

Destie served for many years as corporate secretary of Hardrock Oil Co., Triangle Telephone Co. and Normont Farms. Over the years, she was active at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Havre, Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Great Falls, Episcopal Church Women, Montana Council Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the Big Sky Council, C.M. Russell Museum, Cascade County Historical Society, Order of Eastern Star and Daughters of the Nile. She was an enthusiastic stamp collector and served many years as vice president of Scouts on Stamps Society International. She was a dedicated worker at FISH food bank, YWCA Thrift Shop and numerous other community organizations.

Destie was preceded in death by her sister, Mina Coolidge Lowry; brother, Edwin D. "Pep" Coolidge; and son, Bradley Coolidge Holt.

Survivors include her husband, Arthur J. Bovee Jr.; son, Gregory B. (Dawn S.) Holt of Great Falls; stepson, David A. Bovee of Anchorage, Alaska; stepdaughter, Martha L. Bovee of Del Mar, Calif.; three grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; two step grandchildren; four step great-grandchildren.

Memorials are suggested to the Episcopal Church Memorial Foundation, Montana Council Boy Scouts of America or Girl Scouts of Big Sky Council.