Daphne Lois Remington Hansen

Our dear mother, grandmother, aunt and friend, Daphne Lois Remington Hansen, passed peacefully in her sleep on March 16, 2014, at RiverStone Hospice Home. She was 98 years old. Daphne was born on July 12, 1915, to parents Sumner Allen and Annie Laurie Mackey Remington of Belt. She had a happy childhood and a happy home life with her loving parents, two brothers and three sisters. She was especially close to her younger sister, Ruth, and they remained close sisters and friends throughout their lives.

Her parents prized education and encouraged her to go to college. She attended University of Montana but had to work a year in between study years in order to pay her tuition. She adored the Spanish language and graduated with a BA degree in languages in 1939. She taught in a variety of small rural schools before marrying her husband, Mel, in 1942 and temporarily retiring from teaching while they raised their sons, Pat, Mike and Mark. When their sons were old enough, Daphne returned to teaching at Billings West High School where she taught Spanish for 18 years. During these busy years, she also helped her husband, Mel, with his business, Hansen Music, started in 1947.

She and her husband loved the outdoors and passed that love to their sons. In 1967, they bought a cabin in the Spring Creek area near Red Lodge very near the cabin of her sister Ruth's family. Daphne loved their cabin. As soon as she got home from school on Friday afternoons, she packed up the family car and away they went for a weekend in the mountains.

Daphne was a light and happy presence in the lives of all who knew her. She was strong, committed to her beliefs and capable, yet loving, understanding and patient, and she always had an easy laugh. She will be deeply missed. And whenever we see her favorite colors, pink and yellow, we will think of her and all the happy times she shared with us.

Daphne is survived by her sons, Dr. Michael Hansen and his wife, Krystel, of Billings, and Mark Hansen and his wife, Susan, and children, Natalie and Alex of Kalamazoo, Mich.; daughter-in-law, Kate Hansen of Billings; and many loving nieces and nephews who are heartbroken to lose their dear Aunt Daphne.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Melvin Feurig Hansen Sr., and son, Melvin (Pat) Feurig Hansen, Jr.

Funeral services will be at St. Stephens Episcopal Church on April 3, 2014, with a reception immediately following in the fellowship hall.

Cremation will be by Smith Funeral Chapels. Interment will be with her husband, Mel, in the St. Stephens Episcopal Church columbarium.

The family requests that donations in her memory be made to RiverStone Hospice Home in Billings or to a charity of choice.