Betty Lou Lugar Sage
1931-2013
Our loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt and friend passed away March 1, 2013, in Missoula. Betty Lou was 82.
Betty Lou was the first daughter of ‘Blaz R. and Zella Hanson Lugar. She was born Feb. 23, 1931, in Butte, Montana. She spent her first seven years in the Centennial Valley before moving to the Big Hole Valley with her family in the spring of 1938.
She attended Briston School in the Big Hole through the eighth grade and then attended Beaverhead County High School, graduating in 1949. From there she went to Western Montana College, receiving her two-year teaching diploma in 1951.
On Dec. 8, 1950, she and Lester R. Sage were married. Lester went into the Navy and, in March, Betty Lou joined him in San Diego, CA, where they lived until he shipped out to Japan in November 1952.
In 1953, she was called on to finish teaching the school year at Wise River. She then taught there for the next two years.
Lester returned from Japan in 1954. In the summer of 1955, Betty Lou and Lester moved to Jackson, where Betty Lou taught the upper grades for the next two years and Lester drove the first high school bus from Jackson to Dillon and attended Western. In 1957, they moved to Great Falls, and Lester was employed at the Great Falls National Bank.
Their son, Grant Vernon, was born March 3, 1959. Daughter Jeannette Marie joined the family February 12, 1961.
In June 1972, the family moved to Missoula, where Lester started The First Security Bank, Betty Lou entered the University of Montana and received her Special Education endorsement. In 1974, she started teaching in the resource room in school district, where she taught for the next 19 years, retiring in 1993.
Betty Lou and Lester divorced in 1977. Grant graduated from high school and started Automotive School in Great Falls that fall. He came home Thanksgiving and was involved in an automobile accident going back to Great Falls. He was killed instantly.
In 1983, Betty Lou went to Australia and New Zealand with a university tour. That started her many trips around the United States and the world to destinations that included China, Scandinavia; Europe, Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii and all the states in between.
Survivors include daughter, Jeanette, and husband, Dennis Chapel of Missoula; granddaughter Anna Marie Sage-Casey and husband Vince; great-granddaughter Kieran Noel Sage, all of Portland, OR; sister Sherrie Harrison and her husband, Bill, of Dillon; nephew Thomas Harrison and wife Kim of Helena; niece LeeAnn Harrison of Laurel; and numerous friends and colleagues.
A service will be held in Missoula at the Garden City Funeral Home on Thurs., March 7, at 2 p.m., with a reception to follow.
Garth Packer Taylor
1928-2013
Garth Packer Taylor was called home on Feb. 28, 2013.
He was in the care of his wife, children and hospice at his home in Mesa, AZ.
Garth was born in Weston, ID, on Sept. 2, 1928. He was raised on a farm in Weston and went to school there.
After his graduation, he moved to California, where he met his wife, Norma. They lived there for two years, working different jobs. He always wanted a farm, so he moved his family to Montana in 1950.
Garth was a farmer/rancher for 40 years. He loved his horses and the Centennial Valley.
Garth and Norma chose Dillon as the place to raise their five children: Susan Gunderson (Roger deceased); Larry Taylor (Vana); Gaylene Roberts (Jim); Lynn Taylor (Lauri); and Tammy Peterson (Conrad).
Garth was preceded in death by his sisters, Norma and LaPriele, and his brothers Keith and Leon. Garth is survived by his brothers DeMar (Joan) and Paul (Diane).
He also leaves 17 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren, all of whom he loved very much.
Funeral services will be held in Dillon on Sat., March 9, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints beginning at 11 a.m.
Internment will take place at Mountain View Cemetery in Dillon.
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