Edna Leonard

EDNA MAE (WIGHTMAN) LEONARD_x000D_
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Edna Mae Wightman Leonard left her earthbound life late on March 15, 2012 at her home in Helena and moved on to new teachings and adventures at the side of her Lord._x000D_
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Edna Mae was born February 16, 1922 the third of three sisters to parents James E. and Margaret Braun Wightman in St. Paul, Minnesota. In the spring of that year the family returned to their ranch in Phillips County Montana where she would generally call home for the next 17 years._x000D_
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She went to country schools, put in a few years at a parochial school in St. Paul and attended both Saco and Malta High Schools in Montana, graduating from Malta in 1939. She won several scholarships to Montana State College in Bozeman and enrolled that fall. _x000D_
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While going to MSC, she met Joe Leonard and married him in a ceremony in Great Falls, Montana in August of 1941. When Joe graduated they pulled up stakes and moved to Missoula, Billings, Whitehall and Roundup following Joe’s career. Edna Mae made it back to school in the early sixties, first at Carroll College in Helena and finally getting her coursework completed in 1966 and graduating from Bozeman, in the first class at the newly named Montana State University. _x000D_
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In Roundup, Edna Mae ran her own bookkeeping and secretarial service. In 1954, Joe accepted a Foreign Service job with the State Department with the final destination being Libya, a country suffering the affects of WWII and struggling on the world market and at home. (Before oil) The Leonard family moved first to Tripoli and then finished up the stint in Benghazi. The Mediterranean is as blue as they say and the coastline was beautiful and held the secrets of many civilizations in the Greek, Roman and Turkish ruins that dotted the countryside. The trips to and from Libya were filled with stops in exotic places that Edna Mae had only thought she would be able to see in pictures including, Rome, Paris, London, Copenhagen, the “other” Malta and several cities in Ireland. She endured the male centered culture of Libya but it was not without some (lots of) reservations!_x000D_
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Upon return to the States, the family reunited in Lewistown and very soon moved on to White Sulphur Springs, Montana. Here she found her vocation in at a local bank and a short-line railroad that ran from town to Ringling, Montana. She also ran a small hotel for a short time._x000D_
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In the fall of 1964, the family moved on to Helena and then on to Bozeman to finish that college degree. She worked for the Chemistry Department while in Bozeman and upon returning to Helena, she worked as secretary and assistant journal clerk for the Montana House of Representatives, as a social worker for Lewis & Clark County and as a contract monitor traveling the state of Montana. She then moved on to Billings where she supervised four group homes for mentally challenged adults. Back in Helena in 1981, she lobbied the Montana Legislature for the Montana Pro-Choice Coalition. _x000D_
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Edna Mae had trouble saying “no” and participated in many organizations, including the League of Women Voters, the Bitter Root Audubon Society, and the local Hospice. She was a member of St. Francis Catholic Church in Hamilton, served on the Parish Council, and was ever ready to fill in where necessary. During many years she was an interviewer and announcer for the local Hamilton TV station. In 1989 she was elected to the Hamilton City Council, later served on the Zoning Board and was elected to the Local Government Study Commission. In her spare time she traveled at the drop of a “Let’s go!” She became an ardent genealogist and _x000D_
has published several books._x000D_
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Edna Mae retired from “work” early in her life and lived in Hamilton, Montana and later became a “Snowbird” with a place in Mesa, Arizona and Hamilton and later Helena. She loved the feel of the road under her tires or the feel of the ground under her feet. She was a timid, but avid outdoor person and hiked the Grand Canyon from rim to rim in her early 60s. She joined small groups in hikes into the desert and hiked into Havasu Falls. She marveled in the ancient ruins of the desert natives. For a span of more than ten years, she loaded her little Subaru (loved those cars) and headed south in the fall and back north in the spring. She put lots of wear on her passport with trips to places like Sicily and China._x000D_
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Edna Mae’s winters were not very laid back. She volunteered at the Mesa Southwest Museum and either shopped for, or took older ladies in the Mesa area on shopping expeditions. Most of the older ladies were younger than Edna Mae. She also kept busy with her park’s Singles Club. Her summers were filled with lots of activity. Often you would find her at the Montana Historical Society transcribing tapes made by old time Montanans to computer files. Almost every weekend she packed up her old style clothes and worked as a volunteer at the Living History exhibit at Montana’s Nevada City. She played the part of Patience Cavanaugh, a fictional character who ran a boarding house in the town during the Vigilante Days. _x000D_
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She was preceded in death by her husband, Joe, in 1972, by a daughter, Marybeth, her son Mike, her parents and sisters Marian and Joan. She is survived by her son, Tom Leonard (Shirley) of Helena and a number of nieces and nephews. _x000D_
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Edna Mae had many favorite charities; Hospice, Florence Crittenton and the Nature Conservancy were high on her list. Memorial services will be 11:00 am, Thursday, April 5 at Twichel Funeral & Cremation Service, 314 N. Rodney Street.

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