Shirley Scott has gracefully excused herself from life’s grand tea party, trading her place at this earthly table for one where the silver surely needs no polishing.
Shirley was born on October 19, 1927, in Wishek, North Dakota, to Irene Pritchard and Fred Roehm. As part of the last frontier generation, Shirley’s formal education began in a one-room schoolhouse. During the harsh prairie winters, her father would ferry Shirley and her siblings through blizzards in a horse-drawn sleigh, keeping them warm with buffalo hide robes and hot bricks underfoot.
When Shirley was twelve, her family uprooted to Great Falls during the Great Depression. In 1945, she graduated from Great Falls High School before attending the University of Montana, where she studied history and pledged Kappa Alpha Theta.
After returning to Great Falls, Shirley found herself at a conference listening to a handsome lawyer named Bill Scott, who had recently returned from the European and Pacific theaters of WWII as a naval officer. As Shirley told the story, she craned her neck to catch a glimpse of Bill’s ring finger, only to have her view obfuscated by a bouquet of flowers.
Fortunately, Bill had spotted the big, beautiful blue eyes studying his hands and asked around town to find her. Unfortunately, once found, Shirley declined his advances, citing the growing pile of ducks she had to pick for her father. Undeterred—he was an avid duck hunter himself—he asked again. More ducks, she said. And again. The season’s fowl fully plucked, she enthusiastically agreed. They began their 64-year marriage on August 23, 1947, at the Congregational Church in Great Falls, with five children to follow. Shirley never picked another duck.
With a wide and beloved circle of family, neighbors, and friends—and always happy to expand it—Shirley and Bill loved entertaining. Shirley welcomed everyone who came through the door and was a gracious hostess at countless parties.
She had a radiant smile and a sparkling sense of humor yet was a stickler for the rules of etiquette and grammar. She gently, but firmly, sought to instill these values in her children (and their friends), sometimes with limited success.
Shirley was deeply kind, loving, sweet, and generous. Despite the staggering workload of her roles as a wife, mother of five, homemaker, and hostess, she remained ever unruffled, navigating it all with grace and poise. She was playful, insatiably curious, a voracious reader, and an intrepid traveler.
In the early ’60s, the family’s Whitefish Lake cabin did not have a washer and dryer so during the summers Shirley would pile the kids into the red Suburban (and their friends and cousins—more people fit back then, pre-seatbelts) and drive into town to do the laundry. After dropping the children off at the library, she would commandeer an entire row of washing machines and then sit with her book, savoring the rare moment of peace and quiet.
Shirley was a collector at heart, beginning with stamps and books as a child before moving onto the heavier pursuits of silver, cut glass, and art. She was a passionate antiques collector, hunting with an appraiser’s eye, but also had a soft spot for dolls, toys, and any other object that spoke to her love of beauty, history, or sense of whimsy. She amassed a vast library that included English literature, history, politics, and glossy picture books about the things she collected.
Shirley was active with the CM Russell Museum and the History Museum and co-founded an Antiquing Club with her sister Frannie. A proud member of P.E.O. for 66 years, Shirley served as Chapter I president in 1968 and cherished the friendships she made among her P.E.O. sisters.
She died at age 96 on September 8, 2024, in Great Falls, Montana.
Shirley is survived by her five children: Becky Scott (Keith Tokerud) of Great Falls; Anne Scott-Markle (Andy Hudak) of Columbia Falls; Laurie Ellen Scott of Denver; Duncan Scott (Suzanne Kinney) of Bigfork; and Sarah Willodson (Brad Willodson) of Mankato, Minnesota. She is also survived by her five grandchildren: Tyler Markle (Lauren Markle), Evan Scott, Hannah Tokerud (Paul Burdett), Sonja and William Cipos, and three great-grandchildren, Mikaela Markle, Brianna Markle, and Elizabeth Burdett.
She is also survived by her sisters and brothers: Frannie Lindstrand, Don Roehm (Shirley), Dave Roehm (Claire), all from the Great Falls area, and Bobbie Woolford of Beaverton, Oregon.
Following a private burial, there will be a reception for family and friends in Shirley’s honor on Friday, September 27, at 3:30 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, 600 3rd Ave. N.
The family extends heartfelt thanks to daughter Becky for her unwavering and loving care of Shirley during her final years, as well as to the dedicated staff at Grandview and Eastview.
To honor Shirley’s memory, please polish your silver, iron some linens, host a tea party, and pass serving dishes to the left, dear, pass to the left.
Donations may be made in Shirley’s memory to the History Museum, 422 2nd Street South, Great Falls, MT 59405.
Author: Staff
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