Richard Buchanan

Richard Douglas "Mickey" Buchanan, 75, passed away at his home May 22, 2008.

He was born July 21, 1932, in Porterville, Calif., the offspring of Scots-Irish pioneers of California's Central Valley.

Mickey graduated from Porterville Union High School in 1950 and matriculated at the University of Oregon. He transferred to University of California-Berkeley and received his M.D. from UC Medical School in San Francisco in 1957.

While in college, he spent three summers working in the salmon industry in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and three summers working for the Forest Service in Sequoia National Forest. He spent 10 days each year backpacking in the High Sierras.

Mickey began skiing in 1948. He skied with Warren Miller at Mammoth Lakes in 1949 and 1950 when they only had rope tows. By 1958, Mickey completed his goal of skiing at every major ski resort in the U.S. and Canada.

He also spent two years of sea duty with the Navy as a medical officer with the Destroyer Force Atlantic, home port Newport, R.I.

On Sept. 13, 1957, he married Jeannette Sanborn. After 27 years, they divorced. The couple had four daughters, Lorretta, of Robards, Ky., Jessica, of Port Townsend, Wash., Cynthia, of Phoenix, Ariz., and Lynda of Sweetgrass; nine grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.

Following two years of general practice residency at Sonoma County Hospital in Santa Rosa, Calif., he began a solo practice in Columbia Falls in July 1962. He was quick to point out that the greatest thing he ever did for his family was to move them out of California.

In 1967, Mickey built a new office at Nucleus Avenue and First Street. He had full privileges at Whitefish Hospital and Kalispell General Hospital. He described himself as the last of the GPs and the first of the board-certified family physicians. In 1979, after five hip replacements, he quit working. At the time he was the chief of staff of the new North Valley Hospital.

Mickey was on the board of directors of the Kalispell Ski Club, Flathead Valley Community College, Columbia Falls Chamber of Commerce, Montana Academy of General Practice and the Montana Foundation for Medical Care.

He was the first president of the Columbia Falls A.F.S. foreign student exchange program and a vestryman at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church.

Violet L'Hommedieu

Violet L'Hommedieu, 89, passed away of natural causes May 19, 2008, at the Colonial Manor Nursing Home in Whitefish in the same manner in which she lived her life, with gentleness, grace and great dignity.