Jacquelyn Gladys Anderson, 80, a longtime resident of Wolf Point, went to be with our LORD and Savior on Monday, July 14, 2014 at Billings Clinic Hospital in Billings, MT as a result of a stroke.
Jackie was the oldest of four children, born April 25, 1934 to Jack and Emma (LaVerdure) Beaman on the homestead near Comertown, MT.
She attended school in Comertown and Dooley, MT prior to the family moving to Plentywood in 1946. Jackie graduated from Plentywood High School in 1951. Upon graduation from high school, the high school principal asked Jackie to be his secretary, where she worked until her marriage in 1953. On May 28, 1953 Jackie married her soul mate Archie Anderson in Plentywood. For the next two years they moved from town to town for Archie’s job with the Great Northern Railroad as an operator and telegrapher. In March of 1954 she gave birth to her first son Stephen in Culbertson. The family moved back to Plentywood in 1955 where she worked as a telephone operator. In 1957 they moved to Wolf Point and she continued working as an operator until the office closed. In Wolf Point she gave birth to two more boys, Jack in February of 1959 and Kelly in November of 1961. Jackie continued working at various county and state offices in the county courthouse in Wolf Point along with stints working for Mountain Bell and selling real estate. She returned back to the courthouse working as Deputy Assessor until her retirement in 1995.
In the years after they moved to Wolf Point, Archie was working for the electric cooperative and Jackie would help Archie in his duties with the cooperative. She would assist him with his paperwork, work as a ground person sending equipment up the pole on power outages when needed, and spent many hours of answering the co-op’s telephone during the many stormy nights.
Jackie was a long-time member of the First Lutheran Church.
Jackie enjoyed many hobbies at various times, including stained glass work, ceramics, crocheting, and knitting; but the one constant was her love of travel and family. In her love for travel Jackie and Archie would go on many bus tours trying to meet a goal of visiting every state in the country. They went on many cruises including one through the Panama Canal. On one trip to Mexico with her oldest son’s family she was adventurous enough to parasail over the ocean even though she could not swim. She enjoyed spending time with family and friends on camping and fishing trips usually catching some of the larger fish. Family gatherings and reunions were always a great time to renew acquaintances and meet new people.
Jackie was preceded in death by her parents and her brother Earl. Jackie is survived by her husband Archie and three sons: Stephen of Longmont, Colorado, Jack of Billings, Montana, and Kelly of Wolf Point, Montana. She is survived by two grandchildren: Justin of Longmont, CO and Nicole of Boulder, CO. She is survived by her sisters Mary Barsness and Shirley Meyer of Wolf Point and numerous nieces and nephews.
Jackie will be missed by all that knew her and will live on in our hearts.