Mary Nell MacIntyre

Mary Nell MacIntyre passed away May 1, 2013, in Poulsbo, Wash., at age 94.

Born Mary Nell Buck in Bentonville, Ark., in 1919, she moved with her family in 1928 to farm in the Bitteroot Valley near Corvallis, where she spent many happy hours horseback riding in the foothills of the Bitteroot Mountains.

Following her graduation from Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., in 1940, she returned to Montana and taught school in Pony, Absarokee and Columbia Falls.

In 1941, she married David H. MacIntyre, a fellow graduate of Whitworth College from Anaconda. After his discharge from the Army in 1945, he went to work for the Anaconda Copper Company, and for several years they and their young family lived in Chuquicamata, Chile, before returning to Montana and eventually building a home overlooking the Flathead River in Columbia Falls.

As her own five children grew up and left home, Mary Nell returned to teaching and was very active in the PEO, the Columbia Falls Methodist Church and served on the boards of both the Columbia Falls and Flathead County libraries.

Mary Nell and Dave continued to travel widely, but were never happier than when sitting at home on their back deck admiring the view of the Flathead River as it flowed south from the peaks of Glacier National Park. After Dave’s passing in 1999, Mary Nell moved to Poulsbo, Wash., to be closer to her children and traded her view of the Rockies for a view of the Olympics rising above Puget Sound.

She departs us now to return to Montana to lie at the side of her husband in the shadow of the mountains they knew and loved so well. Interment will be at Woodlawn Cemetery, in Columbia Falls.