Gloria Jean Bush Andrew

Gloria Jean Bush Andrew

Gloria was born May 4, 1942 in Missoula, Montana the oldest daughter to Richard F. Bush and Bonnie Marie Kohler Bush. Sister Linda was born seven years later on Gloria’s birthday. Gloria remembered her father remodeling/finishing their house on Stoddard Street then building two other houses from the ground up on North Avenue and at the corner of Bow Street and South Avenue, right across from the county airport where Sentinel High School now stands. In those days the Salish and Kootenai would harvest bitterroot in the flyway across Bow Street west of the house where the Seventh Day Adventist and Immanuel Lutheran churches were built. Gloria attended Paxon, Roosevelt, and Washington elementary schools and was particularly fond of her First Grade teacher Mrs. Miller. After her mother’s death in 1951 her father remarried to Joyce Young and Gloria and Linda were joined by sisters Julie and Brenda and brother Rick.

In the summers starting about 1952 Gloria and her sister Linda would be put on the Northern Pacific Railroad out of Missoula bound for Tacoma, WA with boxed meals and special introductions to the porters and the conductor himself, as well as having a letter pinned inside each of their jackets. They were headed to Grandma and Grandpa Kohler’s “up the hill on J Street”. With Sunday worship together, trips to Wright Park, the zoo at Point Defiance, and hours spent in Grandpa’s repair shop, or baking with Grandma left a lasting impression of love and care.

Gloria loved school: Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Public School. She was baptized in the Methodist Church in 5th grade, and that same year began playing the flute and singing in the girls ensemble each year through high school. Gloria was on Student Council as a Freshman and part of Girls Club (Special Projects and Program Committees) all four years of high school. She was supporting cast in “You Too Can Be Charming” and was active in Jobs Daughters. “When I went into high school I purposed to be a friend to every-one,” she said later.

In January of her senior year Gloria wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Ko-nah explaining an episode on the last day of school before Christmas break. She related that she had “been given a gift of mistletoe” immediately before going to study hall and had not enough time to stow it in her locker. Mr. Dave Andrew, the English and Speech teacher, noticed and suggested Gloria bring the mistletoe to the front and put it in the desk drawer. Gloria wrote, “Not wishing to be embarrassed I smiled and said I would put it under my chair and cover it with a sheet of paper. That I did and commenced with the study-ing of my English. Silence — Then came this booming voice from the front of the room, ‘Bush, bring that mistletoe up here!’ What was I to do but take the awful vegetation to the front of the room and put it in the drawer? It’s not that many people who need that much mistletoe.” After graduation Gloria briefly worked for Palmer’s Drug until Mr. Palmer discovered she could not drive. She then worked for Art Mandell at the Dairy Queen before starting in the Men’s Department at the Missoula Mercantile.

In the fall of 1961 word got back to Missoula the Mr. Andrew, who was teaching on a Fullbright appointment at the University of Liberia in Monrovia, was a bit homesick. Gloria began corresponding with him and sent care pack-ages of cookies. Mr. Andrew wrote back and also sent post cards. Dave re-turned in July of 1962 and married Gloria Wednesday, October 24th in time to “take a honeymoon to Great Falls for the MEA convention Thursday and Friday and visit Three Forks on the weekend.” That next spring Gloria and Dave bought land on the Folsom Ranch in the Rattlesnake north of Missoula, breaking ground in June with a loan based on “your work with the contractor.” At four months pregnant Gloria and Dave moved into their unfinished home on July 20, 1963 and son David was born that December with a number of rooms still left to paint. Three years later son Ross was born in March of 1967, and finishing projects on the basement were almost complete.

Gloria became a member of the First Presbyterian Church upon marrying Dave and taught Kindergarten Sunday School in the southwest corner room for 17 years under the direction of Luciele Kempner. She was fond of re-counting how one little boy asked after being encouraged to pep-up his sing-ing Onward Christian Soldiers, “But Mrs. Andrew what’s gusto?” Gloria and Dave hosted 23 years of “Planned Thanksgiving Dinner” at the church some-times with as many as 90 in attendance. One year a family had additional guests to their home and called ahead bringing their turkey and sides with them to share in the celebration.

For many years Gloria kept careful note of temperature and precipitation in the Rattlesnake valley on her calendar and in the late 1970s she became a NOAA weather spotter with a government gauge and later a weather radio. Watching weather coincided with a passion for watching birds and learning their calls. Shortly after moving into their house on Altura Drive she asked Mills Folsom about a bird she couldn’t spot, “Oh that’s a Says Feebee,” he said, “It’s named after it’s call.” Gloria looked and looked for weeks to see the unusual bird until at last one of the Black-capped Chickadees stopped to sing at the feeder. Mr. Folsom never let her forget his joke.

Two of Gloria’s favorite places, aside from 1603 Altura Drive, were the National Bison Range at Moiese, MT and Lake Inez. Sometime around her birth-day each year Gloria looked for a ride to the Bison Range to spot new calves and wildflowers. But it was on the south end of Lake Inez where Harry and Dorcas Northey had their cabin that the family would spend Sunday night to Friday noon loaded with food, bedding, books, magazines, and extra wood (no matter what Harry said) in quantities to feed the neighbors and leave everything stocked-up. Yes, we actually did take the kitchen sink one year. Pea-nuts were mandatory to hand-feed chipmunks and ground squirrels and it is the best place to watch for shooting stars and satellites.

In 1976 Dave and Gloria along with Joan and Bob Laing organized the Missoula Scottish Heritage Society initiating a long-running Scots picnic and games. Two years later the family spent four weeks in Scotland with money borrowed from Dave’s life insurance, “Money well spent.” In 1982 Gloria self-published (before that was a term) her cookbook collection “Gloria’s Glorious Glormet Cookbook” which included anecdotes on the contributors and how the recipe came to be included.

During the day Gloria provided home childcare and in the evenings also cleaned medical office suites: first at Missoula Medical and later at Missoula Community Medical Center. A life-changing accusation and acquittal in 1995, being rear-ended in 2009, and a collision from reckless driver in 2016 restricted Gloria and Dave more and more to home. In her last year though she appreciated “running errands” with granddaughter Lucy, participating in the Steadfast Group with son David, and “having a hymn sing” with friends at The Village. In fact when faced with bad news from the ER doctor, “That there’s not much we can do,” to which she said, “Well we can have a hymn sing while we wait.”

Gloria was preceded in death by her mother Bonnie Marie Kohler Bush, her father Richard F. Bush, her step-mother Joyce Young Bush and her sister Linda Marie Jellins. She will be remembered by sons David H. (Cady) An-drew IV and Ross Stewart Andrew; sisters Julie (Bob) Starr and Brenda Gibbs and brother Rick F. Bush; six grandchildren: Finley Jane Andrew, Fiona Ruth Andrew, Neva Marie (Joseph) Deckert, Lucy Cadine Andrew, David H. An-drew V, and Gillian Rose Andrew; and two great-granddaughters Gwendolyn Holly Deckert and Rosalind Ivy Deckert.

A funeral service is planned for 11:00am Tuesday, August 12, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church in Missoula followed by a luncheon reception and a 3:00pm graveside interment at Western Montana Veterans Cemetery along-side husband Dave.

Gloria's Memorial Service will be livestreamed from the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/live/u-ZKwPZMqI0