Ida Lytton
courtesy photo
Ida Lytton
POLSON — Ida Rose Lytton passed away on Nov. 20, 2018, at the Pines of Mission in St. Ignatius. She was born on Oct. 22, 1926, in Moorcroft, Wyoming, to Walden and Peggy (Roberts) Blakeman.
Ida Lytton was a person of integrity and beauty. Her heart was always about giving to others and she showed that side of her all throughout her life. She always loved teaching and would put dolls on the stairs of her childhood home and would teach to them. She was one of 13 in her family and the only one to go to college.
Ida studied to be a teacher and started teaching upon her graduation in a little oneroom schoolhouse near Sheridan, Wyoming, where she lived on the ranch with Jack, her husband. They lived quite a ways from the schoolhouse. Jack would saddle her horse in the mornings and she would ride to school with her school books slung over the saddle horn in safe keeping.
She was an amazing teacher. Ida told of times her horse would not behave and would bolt and run fast for home. She said she was not concerned about the running wide-open horse beneath her, but rather for the books … she had to save the books. Later in 1957 Jack and Ida moved to the Mission Valley where they purchased a ranch just south of Polson. Mrs. Ida Lytton to this day remains a huge complement to our Lake County as the first lady to serve as a principal for our educational system in the valley. She was the principal of Pablo School for many years and helped nurture the many students who crossed the threshold of that school. She was also a teacher at Valley View School and the Ronan School District before she became the principal of Pablo School.
She touched the lives of so many children and faculty members at these schools, to which the long list of names still goes on and on to this day regarding the people who loved and respected Mrs. Lytton. They state quite often that because of what she did for them, it helped make a difference in their lives, and made them the confident and successful people they are today. She is still highly respected and regarded in the eyes of many people throughout the community who had the opportunity to spend time with her. Mrs. Lytton was always about making a difference wherever she went, and served on many boards and committees. She bowled for many years on a league and won many trophies and awards during that time.
She also is the person who headed up the Head Start Program in Lake County many years ago that remains in use today. Her love for teaching was all about promoting education and learning and carried with that a joy that spread to all those she was in front of in her school days. She was an educator for 50-plus years and earned her master’s degree from the University of Montana, as well.
The legacy Mrs. Lytton leaves behind are her children, as well as all the school children who she had the opportunity to educate and guide during her principal position throughout the years. Ida left a lasting and forever felt impression on the faculty she was able to serve and who worked with her. All of these students were her children, she would say, each student’s life was important to her. Their successes were inevitable based on the standards she put strongly upon herself when educating them.
There will be a graveside service on Friday, June 7, at 10 a.m. at Lakeview Cemetery.
Arrangements are under the direction of Shrider–Thompson Funeral Home.
