Alfrieda K. (Fritz) Green, age 101, of Wolf Point, MT, passed away on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at Faith Home in Wolf Point. Alfrieda was born in Clarkson, Nebraska on August 28, 1908. Her parents were George Andreas Hagen and Frances (Kopietz) Hagen.
She came to Montana in 1915 with her mother and 4 year old brother, John. Her dad had come to Montana earlier to buy horses for the army. He decided he liked Montana and sent for his wife and children to join him. They arrived with 2 trunks, one for clothes and one for toys. Her Nebraska family was glad to learn there was a Catholic Church in Wolf Point. Her dad ran a dray line and helped newcomers to move to their homesteads. He filed for a homestead 10 miles north of Wolf Point and called it the Stone Hill Ranch.
John and Fritz had left their dog in Nebraska when they came to Montana and their grandfather, John Kopietz, shipped the dog to Montana to relieve the lonesome children and animal who mourned for his young masters.
Fritz attended grade school and high school in Wolf Point. She made a lifelong friend, Ellen Appelgren Peterson. Her first teacher was Mrs. Lyman Clayton, Sr. In high school she played the flute and was on the girls basket ball team.
On November 6, 1926 she married Louis V. Green, a homesteader from the Lustre area. They were married in the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church by Father Benedict Seethaler. Their attendants were her classmate Dorothy Gilligan and his brother, Nathan Green.
After their children started school they lived in Wolf Point during the winter months and lived at 222 1st Ave South since 1935. In August of 2005 she fell and suffered a compression fracture of the spine and since has lived at Harada House and Faith Lutheran Home.
She was a charter member of the St Francis group of the Altar Society, now called the Parish Council of Catholic Women; in 1947 she was on the original committee of the Stampede Hamburger stand. She belonged to the Catholic Daughters, Senior Women’s Club, Degree of Honor Lodge, Voices For Children and the American Legion Auxiliary. Her special love was centered around special education for retarded children and the developmentally disabled. She worked on these needs with Payton, Terry, Cliff and Lottie Hansen and others.
She is survived by her children; Rita (Larry) Lampton of Libby, MT; Joann (Louis) Jablonski of Wibaux, MT, Michael Green of Sandstone, Minnesota, Tom Green, Mary Lou Green and Harriet (Julius) Friesen,of Wolf Point and two foster sons, Matthew and John Courchene of Missoula, MT; 24 grandchildren and 44 great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Louis, her brother, John; her daughter, Grace and sons, George, John and Richard; a great grandson, Jade Hillesland and a great granddaughter, Alfrieda Jean Friesen.
Visitation will be Sunday, November 22, 2009 starting at 5:00 p.m. with a Vigil held at 7:00 p.m. at Clayton Stevenson Memorial Chapel in Wolf Point. Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m. Monday, November 23 at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Wolf Point. Interment will follow at Greenwood Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.stevensonandsons.com. Clayton Stevenson Memorial Chapel of Wolf Point has been entrusted with the arrangements.