Cerilda Cecelia Anne Ellis

Cerilda Cecelia Anna Jasch Ellis, of Trout Creek, Montana passed away Saturday afternoon, March 21, 2015 at Clark Fork Valley Hospital Comfort Care, Plains, Montana at the age of 102.

Born January 6, 1913 in Elma, Iowa the first child of Ernst and Emma Boehmer Jasch. She completed her schooling in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota and worked as a live in housekeeper until going to work at Swifts where she held several positions from plucking poultry, candling eggs to bookkeeping.

She met Richard Wilson Ellis and after a brief courtship they were married on May 13, 1950 in Duluth, Minnesota. They found themselves living in a homemade camper for a while as they traveled their way around themed-west and western states. They settled for a short time in Coos Bay, Oregon where their daughter, Winona Ann was born. After they resumed traveling for a time until family duties called them back to Minnesota. A few years later they began traveling again and acquired an old school bus in Missouri that they made into a home. They ended up in Indio, California and for a time lived in a date grove surrounded by citrus groves. It was there that Cerilda and her daughter learn to ride a bicycle. She also hand painted the bus while there. Their journey continued north to Standard and Modesto, California and they finally ended up in Renton, Washington and Sagle, Idaho before finally finding their ultimate destination of Kalispell, Montana in 1963.

After much study, at age fifty, she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints six years after her husband had been baptized in a river in Minnesota. She chose the more conventional method. She held many callings as secretary and teacher over the years. In later years she served a Family History Mission doing extraction work in Kalispell for several years. She and a friend enjoyed visiting the Cardston Alberta Temple every couple weeks for many years. She and friends enjoyed a temple hopping trip thru Utah and Idaho as well as visiting temple open houses in Washington and Oregon. She also enjoyed several Time Out for Women events in Spokane.

Following the passing of her husband in 1971 she began work at the Flathead County Courthouse in the Treasurers office and retired from there many years later. She enjoyed walking and traveling as well as beadwork, crocheting and gardening. After helping her husband with mechanics and carpentry she could build and fix just about anything including making window screens and a screen door. She continued to garden until age 99. She also took many train and bus and car trips during her life. A neighbor took her to Minnesota to visit family in a semi-truck. Her son-in-law took her on her first motorcycle ride. She drove a riding mower. She had been in a small aircraft as a young woman and at age 90 enjoyed a helicopter ride over the Flathead Valley. She moved to Trout Creek nine years ago to be near her family.

Cerilda is survived by her daughter, Winona (Bruce) Wortley and grandson Tyrel Wortley of Trout Creek, Montana; a sister and brother, Gladys Wilke and Don (Esther) Jasch of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, and brother Virgil Jasch of Fargo, North Dakota and one sister-in-law Ruth Ellis of Duluth, Minnesota.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, a brother Orval and a sister Rose.

Services will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Thompson Falls, Montana. Interment will follow at the C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery in Kalispell, Montana.

Service Information Funeral Service Friday March 27, 2015 10:00 AM Thompson Falls LDS Church Graveside Service Friday March 27, 2015 3:00 PM Conrad Memorial Cemetery 641 Conrad Dr. Kalispell, MT 59901