- Date Of Birth: February 7, 1935
- Date Of Death: May 14, 2017
- State: Montana
Cecil Ida (Cameron) Whitehead 82
Our beautiful wife, mother, sister, grandmother, great grandmother and friend moved on to a new adventure while comforted by her large loving family on the evening of Mother’s Day, May 14th at the Heritage Place.
Cecil Ida Whitehead was born on February 7, 1935 in Butte, Montana to Archie and Hazel Cameron, the seventh of nine children. The family soon moved to the Flathead Valley where she attended local schools and began her fabulous journey. Cecil and her siblings enjoyed an idyllic Montana upbringing following work opportunities around northwest Montana and being a productive member of a large close-knit and loving family, assimilating ethics and qualities that she would instill in her own children.
Cecil met the love of her life by chance when a young man who worked for her father courted her and the story goes that she flipped a silver dollar and the man who would catch the dollar would win her affection. Cecil must have tossed the coin in his direction, because Richard “Nibs” Whitehead caught the dollar and ultimately won her heart. He still has her heart and the silver dollar he managed to catch that very consequential day all those years ago. They tied the knot on May 9, 1953 in Kalispell and spent the next 64 years together, mostly in harmony. Cecil accompanied Nibs to logging camps, cooking for the crews, patching him up when he was injured, cutting Christmas trees and monitoring the radio aiding Nibs and his fellow truckers as they made a living in the vast forests of northwest Montana. At the same time she managed to nurture her children into strong hard working adults. Cecil was employed at many different jobs over the years doing everything she could to make her children’s lifes better. Over the last 14 years Cecil worked with her daughter Sherri at Imperial Dry Cleaners, becoming grandma to customers and co-workers. We just never met anyone who didn’t admire Cecil.
Cecil and Nib’s love produced 5 children, 13 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren and countless others that were treated as children and grandchildren.
Cecil loved Montana’s great outdoors, she was at home in the woods camping with her kids and grand-kids, teaching them how to bait a hook or land a frisky brookie in Pinkham Creek. She was the anchor of the tug-a-war team, or could expertly stack an entire cord of wood on a small 86 Toyota pickup and at the same time delicate enough to hold an injured hummingbird and nurse it back to health.
Cecil was preceded in death by her parents, Archie and Hazel Cameron, an infant son Kenneth Allen Whitehead, brothers and sisters Vivian Workman, Ken Cameron, Archie Cameron Jr., Goldie Tremis, Fred Cameron, Josephine Bouton, Earl Cameron and Dorothy Jean Cameron.
Cecil is survived by her loving and devoted husband of 64 years, Richard “Nibs” Whitehead, and brother Donald Cameron and sister in law Pat Cameron, cousin and dear friend Barbara Fay. Daughters and sons: Debbie and Jerome Moore, Mark and Tami Whitehead, Byron Whitehead and Peggy Nau, Sherri and Michael Hayes.
Grandchildren: Scott and Michelle Moore, Travis and Raime Moore, Amber Franklin and RT Kienes, Kyle Whitehead, Tracie Brown, Alisha and Dallas Thornton, Jeremy and Tommi Walker, Tiffany and Steve Howard, Josh and Megan Shepard, Anna Hayes, John Hayes, Jason Hayes and one grandchild who share’s Cecil’s birthday Beverly Hayes.
Great-grandchildren: Mayson Moore, Kenedee Moore, Austen Siderius, Aaron Siderius, Andrew Siderius, Haeli Shepard, Kassidy Shepard, Samantha Shepard, Mia Howard, Remi Howard, Trevor Harman, Kooper Harman, Ariah Walker, Brodie Walker, Janessa Walker, Dalton Brown, Daegan Brown, Decker Thornton, and Avery Thornton.
