Jim passed away on Feb. 24, 2015, at the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls.
He was born on March 30, 1926, in Kalispell, to Byron H. Graham and Anna I. Duffy Graham and was raised on the family farm in the LaSalle area, overcoming the Great Depression, but living what he called a happy and carefree childhood.
The summer after graduating from Flathead County High School in 1944, he worked horseback on a U.S. Forest Service trail crew, and then enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and served as an aerial engineer in the South Pacific.
After the war, he was a sheet metal apprentice in Kalispell, worked on Hungry Horse Dam as a coppersmith, and retired after 35 years of working in the fabrication shop at the Columbia Falls aluminum plant side by side with his twin brother Bob.
Jim married Ramona June Saurey in 1949, and they spent the next 65 years raising their family in Evergreen. Jim raised flower and vegetable gardens, supplying many households with produce. He coached baseball and loved watching his grandchildren play sports. He valued the environment and wildlife, hunted and enjoyed plugging for bull trout from the Flathead River and fly fishing its tributaries for cutthroat. At the horse races during the fair, his favorite place to sit in the grandstands was on the finish line. Perhaps most of all his pursuits, he loved to go huckleberry picking.
Jim was well known for his ability to repair and fabricate all kinds of mechanical and household items. He was politically well-informed, avidly followed the news and had an uncanny ability to recall facts and figures. His sense of humor was wry and perceptive. He was patient, hardworking and generous. He said, “Don’t look back, what’s done is done, and what’s gone is gone.”
He was preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Francis and Lawrence; and niece, Linda.
He is survived by his wife, Ramona; son, Glenn, and wife Shelley; daughters, Cathleen and Mary Beth (Seaman) of Kalispell; daughter, Colleen, and husband, Clay White, of Helena; grandchildren, Scott Graham and wife Karen, and great-grandchildren, Marlie and Ashlyn of Star, Idaho; grandchildren, Claire Graham, Jamie Graham, Gregory Seaman, Kayla Seaman and Eric Seaman of Kalispell; brothers, Byron Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas, Robert, and Neil and wife Lorraine of Kalispell; and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends.
A memorial gathering for friends and family to share their stories of Jim will be held at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls.
Tributes may be sent to the Shriners Hospital for Children, P.O. Box 2472, Spokane, WA 99201.
The family extends its sincere appreciation to the staff at the Montana Veterans Home for their professional and loving care of Jim during the last five months.
To send a note of condolence to the family, please go to www.buffalohillfh.com . Buffalo Hill Funeral Home and Crematory is caring for the family.
Spokane Shriner's Hospital for Children
P.O. Box 2472
Spokane, WA 99201
509-252-3370
http://www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org/en/donate