Albert Lewis

Albert “Algie” Lewis, 80, passed at 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, May 30, 2012, at North Valley Hospital. He spent his last day joking with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and brother. 

He was born in 1931 on his family farm in Columbia Falls at the end of Lewis Lane. The house, which later served as Doc Smiley’s veterinary clinic, still stands as a monument to the Lewis legacy.

Al attended Deer Park Elementary, where he and his brothers earned the local idiom “there’s only one thing worse than the Lewises, and that’s the Peterses.” Later he attended Flathead High School, where several weeks before graduation, Al was accused by his English teacher of cheating and quiet, studious Algie dropped the teacher from a second-story window.

Al earned his diploma while serving 23 years in the Air Force. His tours took him all over the world, including his treasured first deployment in Taiwan; Korea, where he was a plane mechanic when his post was bombed; and England, where he served as a decoder. His color-blindness was a secret weapon during combat training when camouflage made the enemy strikingly stand out from their surroundings.  

While serving in England, he married Joyce Greenslade on Sept. 24, 1954. 

After returning to the states and retiring from the military, Al joined the crew at the Anaconda Aluminum Co. plant, where he worked for 16 years. After his return to Montana, Al married Marie Allen St. John on Aug. 11, 1977.

Al was the eldest boy of six intelligent and self-sufficient siblings. While always the more reserved of the Lewis gang, Al could be found chasing chickens and whittling “sling-shot rifles” to tease the other children. After he retired, not much changed. Between reading U.S. history and current affairs books, Al let his grandchildren play in the chicken coop and rake needles for the burn barrel, helped them build dog houses, cat houses and hammer nails into scrap boards, and he baby-sat their pet rock collections.

Al read to his young great grandchildren, and as they grew they returned the favor, reading him their favorite stories while nestled in his lap. Al filled his hours with reading, traveling to Bible study conventions, studying the scripture and swapping war stories. To keep active, he maintained his property, tinkered in his workshop, destroyed his children and grandchildren at cribbage, built puzzles and played dominoes.

Al was preceded in death by his parents Albert and Prudence Lewis and brother-in-law Earl Smithson.  

He is survived by his wife Marie Lewis; siblings Evelyn Smithson, Velma and Clay Lauman, Ira and Lillian Lewis, Sam and Nomi Lewis, and Bob and Judy Lewis; children Linda and Michael Whardley, Tina St. John Horner and Bill, Marlys St. John Ball and Don, William St. John, and Angela St. John; eight “bratty” grandchildren; 12 adorable great grandchildren; and numerous loving nieces, nephews and friends.

Columbia Mortuary will host a viewing on Friday, June 8, at noon followed by services at 1 p.m. Interment will be at Glacier Memorial Gardens in Kalispell. A reception will follow at the Hampton Inn.

Condolences and memories can be shared on Al’s guest book online at www.columbiamortuary.com.