Colleen Paul

- Colleen A. (Gallagher) Paul of Butte, formerly of Charlo, passed away on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012, at the respiratory hospital in Post Falls, Idaho, after a prolonged battle with cardio-pulmonary illness. She was 78-years-old when she went home to God. Colleen was born on Nov. 9, 1933, in Charlo to Mabel and Frank Gallagher. The seventh child in a family of 13 children, she was raised on the family farm west of Charlo. She graduated from Charlo High School in 1952. After high school, she worked at Holy Family Hospital in St. Ignatius for two years, then attended the College of Great Falls where she studied business and office administration. In 1957, she married the late John Paul, and settled in Butte, where she resided throughout most of the remainder of her life. In the early 1970s, Colleen returned to college, earning a bachelor's degree and a teaching certificate in history from the University of Montana-Western in Dillon, then known as Western Montana College and considered to be Montana's 'teacher college'. She taught for a few years in Arlee and in Butte before returning to Western to receive a master's degree in library science. She then returned to work as a librarian in Butte, finishing her teaching career at Butte's East Middle School in 2010. Colleen had no children of her own, but she often spoke of the students that she helped get through the educational maze as her children. She was very fond of those students, and would spend hours telling their happy, sad, funny, and poignant stories to all who would hear. She truly enjoyed being part of the educational profession. Colleen also had abundant (more than 65) nephews and nieces, as well as many grand-nephews and grand-nieces whom, along with her students, she loved and considered as her own children, a sentiment that was reciprocated. Her neighbors and friends and co-workersand she had many of eachwere of great importance to her, and she thought of many of them as her 'extended family'. Colleen's closest affiliation was with her church. She was a parishioner at both St. John's Parish and St. Ann's Parish in Butte, and she frequently was a church volunteer and a religious education teacher there. Colleen's wit, intellect, humor, energy, and spirituality made her stand out in any situation that she found herself in. Her verbal skills were vast and were exercised with frequency and with effect. Colleen had many struggles throughout her long, but happy, life, the most notable being the lung ailment that she suffered as a teenager, when she lost a portion of one lung in surgery. It was the long-term effects of that medical condition that eventually led to her death. Colleen was preceded in death by John Paul; by her parents, Frank and Mabel Gallagher, and by five sibling, sisters Betty Ann, Genevieve (Genie) and Mabel (Doll), and brothers George and Seumas (Jim), and many other relatives and friends. She is survived and missed by her sisters, Fran Keith, Patricia Ague, Rita Runkel, and Ethel McCready; and her brothers John, Ed, and Dan Gallagher; by many nieces, nephews, and other relatives and friends; and by her special longtime friend Norman Slette. Final services for Colleen will be held in Charlo, the town of her birth and upbringing. A rosary/vigil service will take place at 11 a.m. Friday Jan. 13 at the Catholic Church (St. Joseph Mission) in Charlo; to be followed by a viewing from 11:45 a.m. 12:45 p.m., also at the Charlo Catholic Church. The funeral mass will take place at 1 p.m. on Friday afternoon Jan. 13 at the Charlo church, with burial to follow at Mountain View/Calvary Cemetery in Ronan. All who knew Colleen (Gallagher) Paulfamily, friends, co-workers, former students, and longtime acquaintancesare invited to the services, and, to gather for refreshments at the Charlo church, to visit and remember Colleen, following the burial.