Grace Bernadine Orvalla

Memorial Service: 11:00 a.m. on Monday, May 16, 2005 at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Missoula, Montana

Memorial service for Grace B. Orvalla of Gillette, Wyoming will be at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, May 16, 2005 at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Missoula, Montana.

Grace Bernadine Orvalla, age 84, a Campbell County resident passed away on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 at her home of natural causes.

Grace Bernadine Orvalla was born on October 16, 1920 the daughter of Nels and Olga (Larson) Felstet in Big Fork, Minnesota where she was raised and educated. In 1937, Grace met George H. Beans Orvalla, a minor league baseball player and friend of her brother, Ray, in Big Fork, Minnesota; they were married on December 19, 1939 in Grand Forks, Minnesota. Grace and George were blessed with eight children and made numerous moves during their time together. At the age of forty, Graces husband died and she was faced with the task of raising eight children on her own. For a young woman alone in the 1960s, this was quite an accomplishment. Shortly after Georges death, she moved her children to her sisters ranch in Redding, California, which was quite a cultural shock. They went from raising and gathering their own food in Montana to the reality of buying their food in a grocery store in California. As Grace was determined to provide her kids with the kind of food they were desperately missing, she purchased a milk cow, some chickens and raised a huge garden. She was an accomplished bread maker. Everyone seemed to know when she was making bread as her kitchen would fill with people wanting a sample. Although she was poor, Grace built a huge fortune of love for family that carries through the generations and is her greatest legacy. When her children were raised and on their own, she moved with some of them to Gillette, where she lived until the time of her death. She loved to travel and did so frequently between California and Wyoming. In 2000 her dream of having her own home came true when she moved to the ranch north of Gillette with her daughter and son-in-law.

Grace is survived three sons: Charles (Betty Lou) Orvalla of Henderson, Nevada; William (Wanda) Orvalla of Milltown, Montana; George (Illabelle) Orvalla of Ukiah, California; five daughters: Virginia McGlynn of Chico, California; Linda Tomicich of Chico, California; Emily Orvalla of Gillette, Wyoming; Mary Orvalla and her companion, Bob Gaines, of Gillette, Wyoming;; Marjorie (Byron) Oedekoven of Gillette, Wyoming; sister, Bernadine Smith of Anderson, California; thirteen grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, five brothers and two sisters.

A memorial has been established in Graces name to benefit Treasured Memories Hospice of Moorcroft.