Helen Cunniff

Helen Irene Cunniff

Great Falls —Helen Irene Cunniff, 95, passed away Monday evening, July 20, 2015 of natural causes at a local care facility.

A vigil service will be held at 7 pm on Wednesday, August 19, 2015 in the evening at Hillcrest Lawn Memorial Chapel. Funeral liturgy is scheduled for Thursday, August 20, 2015 at noon at St. Ann's Cathedral. Schnider Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements.

Helen was born in Steele, ND on leap year day, Feb. 29, 1920. She was born to veterinarian Dr. Herbert Roquet and his wife Eva Mjelde Roquet.

A year after Helen's birth, the family returned to Big Timber, MT, her mother's home town. Her father resumed an earlier vet practice there. At age four Helen started first grade in the nearby single room school in Melville. Her mother was the teacher and taught grades one through eight.

Helen's parents also owned a bakery and the Boulder Cafe on Big Timber's main street. At age six, the family moved to Big Timber where she attended school. By age nine she was in charge of making change at the restaurant's cash register.

"Babe," as Helen was known to her friends, graduated from Sweet Grass High School at age 16. She attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and received a music degree in 1940. Returning to Montana she became the music director for the Choteau schools for two years.

She met Gordon Cunniff, an advertising salesman at the Great Falls Tribune. After enlisting in the Army Air Corps, he was stationed at the Portland Army Air Base. Helen, along with Gordon's sister Esther Cunniff, joined him there in 1942.

Helen attended business school and got a job as a cost accountant at a local Portland electrical company. In early 1943, Gordon was accepted to Officers Candidate School in Florida. Afterward he then completed his Special Services branch training in Lexington, Virginia. Helen joined him there and they were married on March 6, 1943 in the chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington. Gordon was later assigned to Grenier Field, Manchester, New Hampshire. They remained there during the duration of the war.

After WWII, Gordon resumed his advertising career at the Great Falls Tribune. Helen returned to music and was a piano teacher for many years. The couple raised two boys, Greg and Jeff, and attended their athletic and school events, as well as those of their grandchildren.

Helen and Gordon traveled extensively visiting more than 120 countries over a 30-year period. Their travels took them to the Berlin Wall, Manitoba to watch polar bears, Egypt's Sphinx (riding camels), the Chinese Wall, and a fly-in to the top of New Zealand's Tasman Glacier.

Once asked why they were visiting the southern tip of Argentina? Helen replied, "Well, to see the penguins of course." They traveled until Gordon's death in 2003.

Helen is survived by her children, Greg (Candy) Cunniff and Jeff (Kathy) Cunniff, both of Great Falls; grandchildren Lori (Jason) Purpura of Great Falls, Staci (Luke) Turoski of Bozeman, Brett (Katie) Cunniff of Missoula, Ryan (Jennifer) Cunniff of Kaukauna, WI; and seven great-grandchildren; Samantha, Adrianne and Juliet Purpura, Soren and Mae Turoski, McKinley and Eleanor Cunniff (children of Ryan and Jennifer).

Memorials are suggested to the Great Falls Community Ice Foundation, P.O. Box 2869, Great Falls, Montana 59403; The History Museum, 422 2nd St S, Great Falls, 59401.

Condolences may be shared with the family at SchniderFuneralHome.com