Doris Blazicevich

Doris Theresa Gibbons Blazicevich, 84, of Great Falls, died on Thursday, March 17, 2016 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. A vigil service will be held on Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. at O’Connor Memorial Chapel. A funeral liturgy will be at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6, 2016 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Arrangements are in the care of O’Connor Funeral Home. Doris was born on July 24, 1931 at the Lewistown, MT hospital. Her parents, James Leo and Lena “Ruth” Evers Gibbons took her home to join the family of two other girls on the homestead along Dog Creek at Whiskey Ridge in Winifred, MT. Doris enjoyed growing up on the homestead in the Missouri River breaks, hiking the coulees, picking crocuses, riding horses, milking cows and reading everything in sight. She was a book worm but also loved the outdoors. She attended school at the school house at the ranch in her early grades, then moved to the Winifred School in eighth grade and graduated from high school there when she was only 16 years old. In September of 1947, she went to college at Montana State College in Bozeman. Doris and Anthony “Tony” Blazicevich, her husband of 51 years, shared rides to college from Winifred where they were both born and raised on homesteads. They often kidded each other about whose family had homesteaded in Winifred first, in 1912 or 1913. They married in Hilger, MT on July 1, 1950. They lived in married student housing until Tony graduated and their first child, Matthew, was born. They tried farming near Fort Shaw but moved to Great Falls shortly after their fourth child was born. They family now had two boys, Matthew and Larry “Buddy”, and two girls, Cathy and Theresa. Doris continued to have children until they had ten children, with the younger kids following the first four, Rose, Dave, Bob, John “Marty”, Mary, and Richard. Tony always said they were “cheaper by the dozen.” When they moved into Great Falls, Tony went to work for the Anaconda Company at the smelter in Great Falls. Doris stayed home and raised the children. Doris was very active in the Catholic Church where the children went to school. The children attended Our Lady of Lourdes School and Doris worked or volunteered there for many, many years. Doris was active in church activities including coffee and rolls, bazaars, fundraisers, church dinners and breakfasts. She often volunteered the children to help out at church events. She enjoyed tutoring students in math and reading and even spent one year as a teacher. She liked the one-on-one tutoring. She was always quizzing her own children and other children on geography, math, and books they had read. Doris was very proud of the fact that she went back to college and graduated at the College of Great Falls the same year as one of her daughters graduated from college. Doris and Tony travelled after Tony retired to places like Louisiana to visit Tony’s youngest sister, Alaska, and Texas to visit their youngest son, and many other places in the United States to visit children and relatives. They made one trip to Europe and visited their homelands of Ireland and Croatia. Doris spent some time writing short stories and the history of her family. One of the favorites was “Coulee Climbing Kids” about exploring the coulees around the homestead, “Racing up another grassy hillside, we reached our next destination. It was a special landmark … it was just a single sandstone monolith, shaped like a wall with an arched top. To us, it seemed enormous, and actually it was the largest solid object around … we had an appropriate name for it. THE BIG ROCK. … standing beside our favorite promontory, facing Dog Creek, we beheld an awesome panorama.” The children and some of the grandchildren visited THE BIG ROCK with their Mom and Grandma. Now Doris and THE BIG ROCK are no longer with us, but Doris and this scene will be vividly etched in our memory. Doris is survived by her ten children, Matt, Cathy (Jack) Momberger, Larry, Theresa (Dave) Woodgerd, Rose (Tom) Callmeyer, Dave (Toni), Robert, John “Marty,” Mary (Brian) O’Rourke, and Rich (Nathalie); twelve grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; five sisters, Laura (Bob) Annala, Katherine Gillespie, Ellen (Jim) Fischer, Nancy (Wilson) Stulc, and Marion (Wil) Hunt; two brothers, Jim (Connie) Gibbons and Tom (Mary) Gibbons; and many nieces, nephews and other relatives. Doris was preceded in death by her husband, Tony Blazicevich; her parents; daughter-in-law Jeanette; and sister Margaret Bratz. In lieu of flowers, memorials in Doris name may be given to Our Lady of Lourdes, 409 13th Street S, Great Falls, MT 59405 or to Alzheimer’s Association, P.O. Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090-6011.