Linda Marie Cooley

Linda M. Cooley, 74, of Great Falls, passed away on Wednesday, October 23, 2024.

Linda loved numbers. She was always about math. I remember her teaching me “times tables” and I did really well until I got to 8X7. To this day I have to count it out every time. Because of her affinity for numbers, she would be pleased that she died on her half-birthday. She was born on April 23, 1950, and passed into heaven on October 23, 2024.

Except for the years she spent getting her degree in math at U of M Missoula and teaching in St. Regis and Thompson Falls, she lived in Great Falls. She taught math in junior high school and high school. She taught at May Tech for five years, both math and business math. She loved working with her students, the administrators, not so much! She worked in the IT department at Buttrey’s warehouse for another five years. Her final job before retiring was DA Davidson, again something to do with computers for five years. She explained it to me several times and it just went through my brain really fast.

She loved doing her “puzzles” – Sudoku and would have pages of them photocopied from the newspaper and books. She also loved playing with her little Pomeranian, Punkin, and had her by her side for 15 years.

After our little sister died in April 2020, we noticed that Linda had some problem in her activities of daily life. She had two strokes in December 2020, and it was determined that she had dementia. Her final years were spent at Bee Hive Homes – Linden House. She was in the same room that our mother lived in for several years before her death. I want to thank the wonderful and caring staff at Linden House. They made Linda’s final years happy ones.

Linda was preceded in death by our father and mother, Del and Eloise Cooley; and our little sister, Norma Cooley. She is survived by her “slightly younger” sister, Marcia Cooley of Simi Valley, CA.

I can just see the four of them sitting around the dining room table in Heaven, talking and laughing together. Howard’s sausage pizza with extra cheese in one hand and a beer in the other!