Alice E. Lundgren

Alice E. Lundgren was born on Feb. 15, 1930, in Opheim, Montana, a daughter of William A. Costin and Mamie Marie Hudson Costin. Alice moved with her family to Hinsdale, Montana, when she was 4 years old and spent her childhood there on the family dairy farm. She graduated from Hinsdale High School in 1948. During high school, she worked for the Hinsdale newspaper and set the type by hand for the copies. She graduated from northern Montana College in Havre, Montana, in 1950. She kept in touch with her three college roommates for the rest of their lives, remaining lifelong friends.

She met Charles “Chuck” Lundgren in Havre, and they were married on April 10, 1951. They shared almost 64 years together, raising their three children, working in schools, cultivating a wide circle of friends and enjoying their family.

After college, Alice worked as a secretary for several years, culminating in 26 years as a school secretary at Rose Park and Big Sky Elementary Schools. She kept track of all the students, teachers, principals and staff, and remembered their names and their families.

Alice and Chuck joined First Congregational Church in the 1950s. For more than 60 years, she served her church in many ways, most recently with the Mayflower Women’s Circle. She was a member of the PEO Chapter BG, and Mended Hearts.

She and Chuck spent several winters in Fountain Hills, Arizona, enjoying learning about the area and making new friends there.

In her 94 years, she made time for everyone. She demonstrated and taught love of neighbor — those in their neighborhood, her swimming classes, Friday coffee group, dominoes group, golf groups and dinner groups. She kept a list of dozens of birthdays and sent greetings to all.

She and Chuck traveled to see relatives and friends in many locales, as well as hopping on tour buses to see American and Canadian destinations. She documented these trips in scrapbooks filled with photos and her typed journals of her impressions.

Alice showed up at her children’s homes to paint and hang wallpaper, plant flowers and gardens, and to bring homemade cinnamon rolls and cookies. She always had cookies in the freezer, just in case someone stopped by. In later years, she shared time with grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Utah, Colorado, Washington, Montana and Washington, D.C.

Alice demonstrated her faith for all of her descendants, showing that love always adds and never subtracts. She was a multiplier of this throughout her life as a loving mom, grandma, friend and neighbor.

Alice liked to keep up to date on the news and read the Billings Gazette every day. She was good at the crossword and jumble puzzles.

During her lifetime, she saw many of our presidents. When she was a child, her parents took her and her brother, Ken, to see the Ft. Peck Dam being built, and when President Franklin Roosevelt opened the dam, they went to hear him speak. She heard President Harry Truman speak from the back of the train as he passed through Havre, saw President Dwight Eisenhower in Boise, Idaho, and listened to his opponent, Adlai Steveson in Billings. She and Chuck heard President John Kennedy speak in Billings, as well as Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. She shook President Barack Obama’s hand at RiverFront Park in Billings, and subsequently attended President Obama’s first inauguration.

Alice was preceded in death by her parents; her brothers Louis (Signe) Costin, Lowell Costin and Kenneth (Nora) Costin; and sisters Helen Bennett and Edith Lewis. Her beloved husband, Chuck Lundgren, preceded her in death on April 10, 2015.

She leaves behind her three children, Karen Lundgren, Ken (Carol) Lundgren and Rich Lundgren; her grandchildren, Anne (Chris) Conrad, John Hansen, Jennifer Johnson, JeanAnne Johnson and J (Melisa) Lundgren and Leonard (Liz) Talbert; her 11 great-grandchildren, Freya and Nora Conrad Hansen, Jordan Jarrell, Tristen and Alexis Talbert, Tyler and Telisha (Devin) Williams, Bryson Beck, Allyson (Donovan) Rodriguez, Noelle Lundgren and Jasmyne Lundgren; her three great-great-grandchildren, Keyton, Hayzley and Jack; her nephews, Ray (Kris) Costin and Norman (Janet) Costin, and niece Kim (Herb) Gabel and Laurel Lundgren Parratt, and their families.

In celebration and remembrance of Alice’s life, the family asks that any memorials be made to Billings First Congregational Church, 310 N. 27th St., Billings, MT 59101 or Billings First Congregational United Church of Christ/Alice Lundgren (billingsfirstchurch.org) in support of its mission and justice ministries.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 11, at Billings First Congregational Church, with lunch to follow. Burial will be on June 17 at Yellowstone National Cemetery in Laurel.

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