Queveene Talley, our mother, aunt and friend, left us June 10, 2016. We celebrated her 100th birthday this March with family and friends. When asked what her secret to a long life was she said, “Work hard and laugh often.”
Queveene Twila Colby was born to Walter and Lelia Colby on March 16, 1916, in Kalispell. She was raised on the ranch on Truman Creek near Kila and attended Flathead County High School.
She married Archie Clothier in 1933 at Polson. She had two children with Archie, Valgene and Nancy, and lived in Swan Valley for 10 years until Archie died. Then she moved to Kalispell and worked to raise her children.
In 1947 she married Ed Beck and returned to Swan Valley. She had one son with Ed, George, and lived on the homestead for three years. They divorced in 1950 and she moved to Galen, Montana, where she worked as a diet cook at the Montana State Tuberculosis hospital for 12 years.
In the following years she moved and worked in Deer Lodge, Missoula and Bozeman before driving by herself to Alaska in 1968. There she met and married Glenn Talley on July 4, 1971. She and Glenn moved to Sequim, Port Angeles and Wenatchee, Washington, and came to live in Kalispell in 2005. Glenn passed in 2009 and she moved to Buffalo Hills Terrace. She found it to be a community of friends.
She is survived by her son, George his wife Emily and grandchildren, George and Chris Beck and Erika Hufstetler; nieces, Sharon Peters and Connie Tetrault; and nephews, Sid Gilbertson, Harvey Sterner, Melvin, Bob and Clay Colby.
She shared her tremendous sense of humor and enjoyed the company of family and friends.
She requested no services, cremation, and that her ashes be placed at Bethel Cemetery in Somers.