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Obituary

LuRea Cobb Tanner

RONAN — Mrs. LuRea (Luella Rea) Cobb Tanner passed away peacefully in her sleep Monday morning, Dec. 12, 2011, at St. Luke’s Extended Care Facility. She was 90 years old. Shrider-Thompson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. A service and remembrance of her long and happy life will be held at a later date. Mrs. Tanner was born June 27, 1921, in Corvallis, the only child of Lenore M. and Milford E. Cobb. Both preceded her in death. LuRea graduated from Corvallis High School in 1939. She then received her two-year teaching degree from Western Montana College in Dillon, (Montana State Normal College), in 1942 and began her long elementary school teaching career in the Corvallis school system. She moved for a time to Spokane and taught at Opportunity School in the 1940s. It was in Spokane that she met her husband, Willard Frank Tanner, who was serving in the military during WWII. He preceded her in death in December, 2001. The couple were married March 6, 1946, in Spokane and lived there for a time where LuRea taught school and Frank worked as a bus driver. They moved back to the family farm in Corvallis in 1948 and lived in the family home from that point on. 

After the couple moved back to Montana, LuRea stayed at home for a while with her young children, but resumed her teaching career in the Victor, Mont. school system in 1956. She taught fifth grade at Victor schools for 20 years before retiring. She received her four-year teaching degree from the University of Montana in 1973 after spending many summers attending summer school at the University. Upon retiring, LuRea and Frank spent a number of winters traveling around the country in their large travel trailer and living at various locations in Arizona before finally returning to Corvallis.

Mrs. Tanner was an accomplished pianist and taught piano lessons throughout her life. She also periodically played with various bands and musical groups around the Bitterroot Valley. Her musical skill was wonderful as she could play by ear almost any song she heard. She also was skilled as a classical pianist, having trained as such at Western Montana College. 

LuRea loved to play piano and organ, read, garden, cook, play cards and watch television, (especially horse racing), and care for her family. One of her heroic efforts in life was being the bone-marrow donor for her youngest son, Mart, who had leukemia. This occurred in her 76th year of life and was a remarkable gift. Upon the death of Frank, LuRea, who had suffered a number of small strokes, lived for a while in the family home in Corvallis before moving to a retirement home in Stevensville. She then moved to a care facility closer to home in St. Ignatius, to be closer to daughter Marilynn, and then to St. Luke’s Extended Care Facility in 2010 where she spent the final year of her life.

She is survived by her three children: Marilynn Jean Tanner of Ronan, Jack Milford and Ellen Kimmel Tanner of Naples, Fla., and Mart Tanner and Janet Schumacher of Raleigh, N.C. Marilynn cared for her the last years of her life and was at her side when she passed into God’s hands. 

Cremation has taken place and interment will take place in the Corvallis cemetery at a later date. 

The family requests that memorials be sent either to the American Cancer Society or to St. Luke’s Extended Care Facility in Ronan.

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