Volume XX, Number 41

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Valley News at a Glance

Postal food drive planned

Obituaries

Postal food drive planned

The Stevensville Post Office asks postal customers to "help the hungry" and donate to the annual letter carriers' food drive on Saturday, May 14. All the food collected goes to community food banks which provide meals for the needy throughout the year.

Postal customers wishing to donate food items should put them in a plastic bag and leave the bag of food items by on on your mailbox before mail delivery on Saturday, May 14.

Food items should be non-perishable such as dried, canned and packaged products. Items most needed by food banks, are canned meats, soup, fruits and vegetables; and packaged non-perishables with lots of protein/carbohydrates such as pasta, cereal, powdered milk and vegetables. Every 1.3 pounds of food donated equates to one meal.

"The food drive is a great opportunity for us all to give something valuable to those who most need it. These include needy children, families, the elderly and the unfortunate whom our letter carriers see on their routes everyday," says Kim Hammond, Stevensville Postmaster.

"Our letter carriers and volunteers are looking to collect a record amount of food on May 14. I know we can again count on the tremendous generosity of our Bitterroot Valley area postal customers."

The post office in Stevensville will also have a food drive bin set up in its lobby on Thursday, May 12 and continuing through Thursday, May 19, so customers can also drop off their canned and non-perishable items.

A total of 10,000 communities and post offices in all 50 states are participating this year. Last year's postal food drive collected a record of nearly 71 million pounds of food nationwide, over 4,000 pounds being contributed from Stevensville alone.

The post offices in Corvallis, Darby, Florence, Hamilton and Victor are also participating.

In 2004, Bitterroot Valley postal workers collected over 10,000 pounds of food. All donations to local organizations including Haven House in Hamilton and Pantry Partners in Stevensville.

Note to Rural Delivery Customers: Please try to hang your bag of food from your mailbox, so that your rural carrier doesn't have to get out of their vehicle to get it.

Grover 'Doc' Tyler

Grover Sumpter "Doc" Tyler, 84, died at the Bitterroot Valley Living Center in Stevensville on Thursday, May 5, 2005.

He was born on September 1, 1920, in Rose Hill, Virginia and was the son of Peter L. and Dora B. (Whitt) Tyler. He was the last of eight children and always liked to say that he was called "Doc" because by that time his folks had run out of names so they had to name him after the doctor that delivered him.

He married Beatrice Hughes in Pennington Gap, Virginia in August, 1952. They had one daughter, Vicki M. Tyler.

Doc attended Hiwassee Junior College (Madisonville, TN) and Lincoln Memorial University (Harrogate, TN) from 1939 to 1941. His college education was interrupted by World War II.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945. During the course of the war in the South Pacific he was assigned to the 27th Infantry Division, 249th Field Artillery BN in a forward observer group and the 295th Joint Assault Signal Company in four invasion battles: Bougainville, Saipan/Tinian, northern and southern Philippines and Okinawa. He received an honorable discharge in 1945.

Doc joined his oldest brother, Earl, in Missoula and finished his education at the University of Montana, graduating with a B.A. in Education, with a major in Biological Science and a minor in Physical Science. He taught two school terms 1952-54 at the Florence Carlton School.

While attending the UM, Doc was a smokejumper during the summer. From 1954-1957 he was parachute loft foreman at the Region 1 Smokejumper Base in Missoula. He moved to Denver in 1958 to work for the Glen L. Martin Aircraft Corp. (Martin Marietta Corp) on the H.S. Air Force Titan Missile (ICBM) program as a technical writer, drafting systems test procedures.

He returned to Missoula in 1959 to accept a job in a new unit in the Region 1 Forest Service, Missoula Equipment Development Center at Fort Missoula as a technical writer/editor of engineering reports, specifications and standards covering firefighting and personnel support and equipment.

In 1979 he and Bea both retired and moved to Hamilton. In 1999, they sold their loved log home and moved to Stevensville.

Doc was preceded in death by his parents, brothers Earl, Fred, Ray and Wayne and sisters Julia Brogan and Georgia Gibson.

Survivors include his wife Beatrice at the Bitterroot Valley Living Center, daughter Vicki of Missoula, sister Faye Parkey, great niece Peg (Guy) Andersen of Florence, great, and great nieces Kristin Ibsen, Missoula and Erica Ibsen, Portland, OR. He is also survived by great nephews Bob (Connie) Tyler, Bill Tyler of Missoula and great niece Patty (Rusty) Eitel of Hamilton, and numerous nieces and nephews in Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky and California.

Graveside services were held at the Missoula City Cemetery in Missoula on Tuesday, May 10 with American Legion Post 94 Honors.

Memorials may be made to the Bitterroot Valley Humane Society or the Missoula Humane Society.

The Whitesitt Funeral Home of Stevensville is in charge of arrangements.

Angela Zninski

Angela Victoria Zninski, 97, of Missoula, died at Country Home Estates in Missoula on Thursday, May 5, 2005.

She was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 1, 1908 and was the daughter of Jan and Anastasia (Kasprzak) Zninski.

She was preceded in death by a son Joe.

Angela is survived by her son Tad (Margie) Lubinski of Florence and grandchildren Brian and Evan Lubinski.

Cremation has taken place and private services will be held. The Whitesitt Funeral Home and Cremation of Stevensville is in charge of arrangements.