Lila Claire Finch Douglas went home to her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in the early hours of Monday April 29, 2019.
Lila was born August 13, 1930 to Ozroe D. Finch and Helen Beryl George Finch in Ismay, Montana. She grew up in a large, loving, and hardworking family on their ranch in the Pine Hills, east of Miles City. She attended the country school in Knowlton then finished grade school, junior high, and high school in Miles City. In high school she met Albert Douglas, a young cowboy from Ekalaka, Montana. They fell in love, got married in 1948, and stayed in love for almost 69 years, until Albert’s death in 2017.
Albert and Lila worked on ranches in Carter, Powder River, Prairie, Teton, Granite, and Powell Counties. During those years they raised five children; Larry and David born in Miles City, Reimer born in Spearfish, South Dakota, and Robert and Beverly born in Choteau, Montana.
In 1972 Albert and Lila moved to La Grande, Oregon and worked there in ranching and agriculture for twenty years. In 1992 they returned to their beloved Montana as caretakers on a beautiful ranch in the Bitterroot valley. Then, in 2013 when they were in their early 80s, they retired to their final earthly home in Churchill, Montana.
Lila was a strong, wise, and very gentle wife and mother. She loved music and had a beautiful, harmonizing voice which she used often to praise her Lord. Mom loved her family and very many friends. She had a kind and encouraging influence on many more people than she realized. Besides her husband she was preceded in death by her parents; sister, Olive Rogers; brothers, Dennis, Earl, Joe, and Lloyd Finch; and an infant great-grandson. Lila is survived by her sister, Bertie Clowers; brother Miles Finch; as well as her five children and their spouses; sixteen grandchildren and nineteen great grandchildren with more on the way.
A special thank you to our friends at Compassus Hospice who so faithfully and lovingly cared for Mom in her last months of life. And to many others in our community who gave of themselves to love and bless Lila.
A memorial service will be held at Manhattan Christian Reformed Church on Saturday May 4, 2019 at 11:00 with burial preceding at Meadowview Cemetery at 10:00.
“Many women have done excellently but you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30
Arrangements are in the care of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service. www.dokkennelson.com
