Shirley Bruner

Shirley Maxine Bell Bruner, 82, died Dec. 28, 2012. She was born in Ontario, Calif., on June 26, 1930, to Milton Herbert Bell and Ella Louise Yates Bell. She was later joined by twin brothers Herbert and Harold Bell.

Shirley attended South Euclid School and later graduated form Chaffy Union High School, in Ontario, Calif. She met and married Ralph Stanley Bruner, of Pomona, in 1947 and moved to Claremont, Calif., where two children were born, Nancy Louise and Stanley Eugene Bruner.

In spring 1951, with two small children and a black lab, they moved to Kalispell. They bought a home in the Birch Grove community in 1953, where Shirley was a member of the Birch Grove Willing Workers club.

She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Columbia Falls for more than 50 years, where she taught Sunday school, Bible school, sang in the church choir and was active in the Missionary Circle for many of those years. She was a member of a local hobby club for several years as well.

Shirley loved raising her family, Sunday afternoon drives with her family, entertaining and decorating with flowers that Stan grew in their yard, her friends and most of all the Lord. She enjoyed the water and spent many summer afternoons on Lake Blaine or Swan Lake with friends and children. She enjoyed all kinds of crafts, including knitting. She was a fantastic cook, baker of cookies and at one time canned more than 100 quarts of dill pickles in one season. She will be missed by all those who knew and loved her, of which there are many.

Her life-long dream was to have children and to teach them to love the Lord as she did and to know Jesus Christ. She once wrote, “Only through my God and Savior have I lived so long.” The Lord was such a joy and strength to her while she lived with diabetes for 70 years.

Shirley was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Stan of 64 years and one brother.

She is survived by her brother Herbert Bell, of Sequim, Wash.; children Nancy Hanchett and husband Scott, of Kalispell, and Stan Bruner, of Melbourne, Fla.; grandchildren Christopher and Lindsey Hanchett, Jonathan Hanchett and Mary, all of Kalispell, Katie and Scott Benson and Nathan Bruner, all of Sacramento, and Julie Bruner and David Bruner, both of Melbourne; great grandchildren Mackenzie and Sydney Benson, of Sacramento, and Ayden Heldstab Hanchey and unborn baby boy, of Kalispell; and by numerous cousins, nephews and nieces.

Funeral services were held Jan. 3, 2013, at the First Baptist Church in Columbia Falls. Burial followed at the C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery.