Rhonda 'Jan' Hanger

Rhonda Hagner

Rhonda "Jan" Hanger, 54, of Havre, Mont., went to meet her Lord and Savior on Saturday, May 28, after a 20-year-long battle with cancer. She was receiving care in the Northern Montana Care Center.

Cremation has taken place and a memorial service with lunch immediately following will take place on Friday, June 3, at 2 p.m. at the 5th Avenue Christian Church in Havre, Mont. Arrangements have been taken care of by Holland & Bonine Funeral Home.

Jan, the younger of twins (Joy), was born in Havre, Mont., to Rita and Richard LaSalle on Jan. 8, 1957. She grew up both in the rural setting around Havre, as well as living in Havre, with her parents and siblings. It was on the farm that Jan developed a love of horses that was with her to her dying day. She helped with chores and livestock and went bareback riding whenever she could.

She graduated from Havre High in 1975. She married Lee Farmer, and they divorced a few years later.

She loved to camp with her friends and family in Beaver Creek Park with Memorial Day weekend being the year's opening event every year.

She went to work for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway at the Havre Diesel Shop in 1977. It was here that she built a great core of friends that would look out for her in the later years of her life. She worked there until 1991, when she married Keith Hanger and they moved to Flaxville, Mont., where they farmed. It was then that she found out that she had breast cancer. They later divorced in 2001. She had two beautiful daughters, Sierra and Danielle, from this marriage. In 1997 she moved to Helena, Mont., with her family so her oldest daughter, Sierra Hanger, could receive the medical treatment that she needed.

Jan and her family moved back to Havre in 1997, where she went back to work at the Havre Diesel Shop and worked there until 2008, when she became disabled from her fight with cancer.

Jan had a heart of gold and was willing to help anyone in any way she could, even in the later years when her health had slowed her down. Her love for Jesus was equaled by only one thing and that was her love for her two daughters. She will be deeply missed by all of her friends and family.

She is survived by two daughters, Sierra Hanger of Glasgow and Danielle Hanger of Belgrade; brothers; John LaSalle of Havre and Jim LaSalle of Bend, Ore .; sisters, Joy LaSalle (her twin sister) of Havre, and Judy Katka of Great Falls.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Richard and Rita LaSalle; her sister, Jeanie Blank; her brother, Joe LaSalle; and nephew, Jake LaSalle.