MISSOULA — With the song “Tea for Two” as a prelude and finale, friends, family members and other admirers paid tribute to Maureen Mansfield Friday at a University of Montana memorial service.

“We are here to recognize and celebrate the life of a very distinguished alumnus of the University of Montana,” UM President George Dennison said in opening the 40-minute ceremony, held in front of the library that bears her name on the UM campus. “The Mansfield name is about as frequently mentioned and heard in Montana … as any other name I can remember.”

Maureen Mansfield died Sept. 20 in Washington, D.C., at the age of 95. She was married for 68 years to Mike Mansfield, a legendary figure in Montana politics who rose to the position of Senate majority leader and served as United States ambassador to Japan for 12 years. Mike Mansfield has constantly credited his success in life to Maureen, whom he met in the late 1920s in Butte, where she was teaching school.

“Tea for Two” was the music played at Maureen’s funeral service in Washington, D.C.

Former Montana Rep. Pat Williams, who spent 18 years in the U.S. House, recounted for the more than 100 people who attended (gathered on the area of the UM campus known as the Mansfield Mall) an encounter he had with the Mansfields many years ago while Mike was campaigning in Butte.

“What I was struck by is that when Maureen was with him, he was joyous and smiled constantly,” Williams said. “But later that day, when she went back to a Butte home to rest and change, Mike continued to campaign but seldom smiled.”

Williams said when he saw the Mansfields again later that same evening, Mike looked “joyous” once again.

Phil West, the director of UM’s Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, talked of attending Maureen’s funeral last month in The Old Post Chapel at Fort Myer, Va. West said it was fitting that Maureen Mansfield was buried under a red oak tree in Arlington National Cemetery.

“Maureen was like an oak tree to her husband,” West said. “And he was like an oak tree to all of us.”

West then played a tape of the eulogy Mike Mansfield delivered at his wife’s funeral.

“She literally remade me in her own mold,” Mansfield said during the eulogy. “Without her I would have been little or nothing.”

In a strong, clear voice, the 97-year-old Mike Mansfield refused to say farewell to his beloved wife.

“I will not say goodbye to Maureen,” Mansfield said. “Because I hope the good Lord will make it possible for us to meet in another place, at another time, and then we will be together forever.”

As the UM memorial service drew to a close, Dennison unveiled a Japanese maple tree that will be planted next to a statue of Maureen and Mike Mansfield on the Mansfield Mall.