Posted: 07/04/09

Early in the morning on Wednesday, July 1, 2009, Alice J. McIntosh went to be with the Lord. She passed away at Aspen Gardens, an assisted living residence in Helena where she had lived for over three years following a fall that resulted in a broken hip.

She left this Earth uncomplaining, the same way she had lived her whole life.

Alice was born in Butte on Sept. 24, 1916, the first child of Charles and Edith Cunliffe. Her family moved a number of times through her early years, moving wherever Charles could find work as a miner, truck driver, carpenter and farmer. She attended school in Avon and Butte and graduated from Big Fork High School in northern Minnesota when her family moved to a homestead there in the early 1930s.

In 1934 she enrolled at Macalester College in St. Paul and graduated in 1938 with a degree in teaching. Her college years were years of hard work. She worked at the home of a St. Paul family for her board and room at the rate of 10 cents per hour. Alice spent many long days attending school, rushing home to her job as housekeeper, babysitter and sometimes cook and then studying long into the night.

She moved back to Montana after graduation, completed some more courses at what is now Western Montana College in Dillon and secured a teaching job at Halfway School, therefore returning to the Avon area where she was to spend her life until her fall in February 2005.

Alice began her teaching career with three students; all were daughters of Alex and Ida Jones. When Ida became quite ill, the school and its teacher and students moved to the home of Ida's parents, the McIntosh Ranch on Three Mile Creek. Alice set up her school in a new log building on the ranch and lived in a room in the McIntosh home. There she met Will McIntosh who was recuperating from a horse fall, and so began a relationship that resulted in their marriage on Sept. 14, 1941, and lasted almost 43 years until Will passed away in 1986. All their years together were spent on the ranch they both loved. To their union two children were born, Margaret, who resides in Helena, and Bill, who lives on the ranch.

Alice was dedicated to her role as wife, mother and rancher. She loved to sew and worked late into the night many times finishing garments for her family and herself. She was known as a wonderful cook and for many years cooked for the haying crew preparing three big meals each day for the crew of 10 or more. Will often commented it was Alice's cooking that brought back many of the hay men year after year.

Alice loved Avon and was very involved in community activities. She was a faithful member of the Get-Together Club and served for many years as president. She was also a member of the Avon Community Church and taught Sunday school for many years. She was active in the Avon Community Club and for a number of years headed up the committee that put on the Fall Turkey Dinner that funded many repairs and projects at the community hall. Alice especially enjoyed afternoons spent at ceramics classes at Ruth Schultz's house in Avon.

She loved to crochet and enjoyed tole painting as well. She was a member of the Little Blackfoot Extension Club and especially enjoyed the company of the ladies in that organization.

Alice was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Edith; her husband, Will; her sister, Margaret; and her brother, Russel.

She is survived by her children, Margaret and Bill; six grandchildren, Richard, John and Kurt (Margaret's children) and Lou, Heather and Gibson (the children of Bill and his wife, Jill).

Alice is already missed and will be always fondly remembered by all who knew her.