Sylvia Earleen Erickson, 94, passed away on Tuesday May 9, 2017, at Brendan House in Kalispell, with her family by her side. Sylvia was born on March 22, 1923, to August and Tana (Moffet) Johnson in Brainerd, Minnesota. Sylvia met her husband to be, Stanley Erickson, when they were both 16 years old and they married on Oct. 25, 1945. They had five children total, three girls (Diana, Sharon and Bonnie) and two boys (Edwin and Arlen); the last two, Bonnie and Arlen, were twins. Sylvia worked for Swift Meats in St. Paul, Minnesota, and later for the Land-o-Lakes Butter Company in Minneapolis where they cut large blocks of butter down into 1-pound cubes and wrapped them for sale. They placed the ones they shipped overseas to the GIs in wooden crates and Sylvia’s job was to assure quality. During this same time Stanley spent four years in the service in the South Pacific during World War II. Music had been Sylvia’s lifelong hobby. She sang in the Minnesota State Community Choir for three years before she began playing piano for the group and they even cut a record during the time she accompanied them. She also played piano for her church for many years and kept a small keyboard in her room that she enjoyed until her passing. Sylvia also loved to drive. Her first car was a green Dodge coupe; later on she purchased a white Mustang and her last car was a red Pontiac Grand Am. She got her driver’s license when she was 17 and that same summer she drove her mother to Nebraska, Colorado and back to Minnesota. In all of her 60-plus years of driving Sylvia never got a ticket and prided herself on her perfect driving record. Sylvia loved traveling and said she had traveled from border to border and shore to shore of the United States in one form or another. In 1956 Sylvia and Stanley moved from North Dakota and made their home in Kalispell until Stanley’s work took them to Havre in 1975. Havre was home until Stanley passed away in 1982. At that time Sylvia moved back to Kalispell to be near her children. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, daughter Diana and son-in-law Larry, and brother Percy Johnson. She is survived by her children, Edwin Erickson (Connie), Sharon Holcomb, Bonnie Tobiason (Jim), Arlen Erickson (Faye); grandchildren, Steven Zorb, Kristi Zorb-Seals, Matt and Joe Erickson, Jim and Collin Holcomb, Nicholas Tobiason, Sabian Fairweather, Annie Kirchner, Dawn Veltri, Sarina Sterner and Trevor Erickson; and numerous great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday May 19, at Buffalo Hill Funeral Home. Interment will be at Glacier Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Brendan House. Friends are encouraged to visit the website www.buffalohillfh.com to leave notes of condolence for the family. Buffalo Hill Funeral Home and Crematory is caring for the family.