Mabel Virginia Palm

Mabel Virginia (Aune) Palm was born March 30, 1930, in Glasgow to Andrew and Signe (Johnson) Aune and died at the age of 83 on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013, from cancer, at home like she wanted.

She grew up north of Saco on the family homestead and was confirmed into the Saco Lutheran Church on May 14, 1944. She graduated from Saco High School in 1948.

She married Carl Palm on Sept. 7, 1952, in Malta. Their son, Corby, was born Sept. 13, 1956.

In 1947, at the age of 17, she started working as a waitress for O'Brien's Café. She worked there until 2002, minus one year when she and Carl lived in Dodson, totaling 55 years of waitressing. She loved the morning coffee drinkers and hearing all the daily news.

She was featured in the Montana magazine May-June 1985 issue and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle in 2002. She loved being outside gardening, doing yard work, seeing the baby animals on the ranch, helping with branding, and in recent years enjoyed taking care of the rabbits around her house. No matter what, she always kept busy.

She enjoyed going to her grandsons' basketball games. During any basketball tournament you would find her having two or three radios going, listening to all the games at once and keeping her stats.

When Carl died in 1990, she took over Palm Dairy and kept it going until Dec. 1, 2013. You could find her out on her daily walk before daylight most mornings. She was given a reflector vest so she could be seen.

Her grandsons and great-grandchildren were very important to her. She always wanted to know what and how they were doing. She waited for her morning visit from Corby, and if he didn't make it for a few days, she let him know.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Carl; four sisters, Agnes, Edna, Agda and Inga; and one brother, Arthur.

Survivors include one son, Corby Palm and his wife, Lorri, of Saco/Hinsdale; grandsons, Cody Palm and his wife, Tina, of Hinsdale and Joshua Palm and his wife, Miranda, of Glasgow; and six great-grandchildren, Sacarra, Drake, Whitney, Taylor, Jon and Allie.

Funeral services were held at Dec. 18 at Saco Lutheran Church, followed by interment in the Grandview Cemetery in Saco.

Bell Mortuary of Glasgow was in charge of arrangements.