Virginia Lee Rinke Meltzer, 90, passed away on August 12, 2014 at St. Patrick Hospital, Missoula, Montana. She was born on November 13, 1923 in Charlo, Montana to Burley Clarence Rinke and Anna Eliza Kelim Rinke.
Virginia moved to Missoula in 1929 to Grove Street in Orchard Homes where at age six she saw her first telephone. She attended Hawthorne School and Missoula County High School, graduating in 1941, and then attended business college. Her favorite subject was Journalism and she worked on the high school paper and yearbooks and was a member of National Quill and Scroll, achieved by having the necessary number of inches published. She had an obvious interest in letters and words.
WW II began in December after she graduated business college and Fort Missoula became an Enemy Alien Detention Center. The government needed court reporters for the hearings to be held. The college sent Virginia in response to this request and she worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service several years. Her ability to take shorthand quickly and accurately continued through her life.
She married her husband, George Calvin "Sonny" Meltzer, on May 27, 1943 after he returned from overseas. Virginia was a stay-at-home Mom and occasionally worked at making drapes and in retail for Westerners and Bob Ward and Sons. They had two sons.
Mom dabbled in many creative outlets through the years. She was an avid seamstress and bowler. She took art classes in pastels, oils and water color, and played golf. She loved to square dance. Finally, a 1979 calligraphy class clicked. She quickly became addicted, at age fifty-six and proclaimed to be "In Love with Calligraphy" ever since. She was a charter member of the Missoula Calligraphy Guild and also of the state organization known as Big Sky Scribes. In 1989 Virginia completed a calligraphy project known as a perpetual calendar made up of her favorite quotes, one per page, 367 pages. Because of her upbringing during the Great Depression and the rationing period during the Second World War, one of her favorites was "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without." She felt blessed to have met so many wonderful people through Calligraphy, those who taught her, and those she shared her skills with. She was a driving inspiration behind the letters movement in the Missoula area for many years. She won a prize for a National Envelope Contest sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers, in recognition of the art of calligraphy and the role of letters in binding people together. Her winning envelope was shown in a traveling exhibit by the Smithsonian around the country.
She will be remembered by friends and family as a wonderful, happy person who cared genuinely about those less fortunate. She expressed her gratitude openly about having lived a wonderful, fun life filled with family memories. We will all miss her.
Virginia was preceded in death by her brother, Cody Rinke; her father and mother, Burley and Anna Rinke; her husband, George "Sonny" Meltzer, and her son G. Lee Meltzer.
Our family offers heart felt thanks for the kindness, compassion and exceptional professionalism of the individuals that cared for Virginia at St. Patrick Hospital during her recent illness.
A service will be held at 2:00 pm, Friday, August 15, 2014 at the Garden City Funeral Home in Missoula, MT. Rev. John Daniels, Pastor of the First United Methodist Church will officiate. A reception will follow at Garden City Funeral Home.
Virginia moved to Missoula in 1929 to Grove Street in Orchard Homes where at age six she saw her first telephone. She attended Hawthorne School and Missoula County High School, graduating in 1941, and then attended business college. Her favorite subject was Journalism and she worked on the high school paper and yearbooks and was a member of National Quill and Scroll, achieved by having the necessary number of inches published. She had an obvious interest in letters and words.
WW II began in December after she graduated business college and Fort Missoula became an Enemy Alien Detention Center. The government needed court reporters for the hearings to be held. The college sent Virginia in response to this request and she worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service several years. Her ability to take shorthand quickly and accurately continued through her life.
She married her husband, George Calvin "Sonny" Meltzer, on May 27, 1943 after he returned from overseas. Virginia was a stay-at-home Mom and occasionally worked at making drapes and in retail for Westerners and Bob Ward and Sons. They had two sons.
Mom dabbled in many creative outlets through the years. She was an avid seamstress and bowler. She took art classes in pastels, oils and water color, and played golf. She loved to square dance. Finally, a 1979 calligraphy class clicked. She quickly became addicted, at age fifty-six and proclaimed to be "In Love with Calligraphy" ever since. She was a charter member of the Missoula Calligraphy Guild and also of the state organization known as Big Sky Scribes. In 1989 Virginia completed a calligraphy project known as a perpetual calendar made up of her favorite quotes, one per page, 367 pages. Because of her upbringing during the Great Depression and the rationing period during the Second World War, one of her favorites was "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without." She felt blessed to have met so many wonderful people through Calligraphy, those who taught her, and those she shared her skills with. She was a driving inspiration behind the letters movement in the Missoula area for many years. She won a prize for a National Envelope Contest sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers, in recognition of the art of calligraphy and the role of letters in binding people together. Her winning envelope was shown in a traveling exhibit by the Smithsonian around the country.
She will be remembered by friends and family as a wonderful, happy person who cared genuinely about those less fortunate. She expressed her gratitude openly about having lived a wonderful, fun life filled with family memories. We will all miss her.
Virginia was preceded in death by her brother, Cody Rinke; her father and mother, Burley and Anna Rinke; her husband, George "Sonny" Meltzer, and her son G. Lee Meltzer.
Our family offers heart felt thanks for the kindness, compassion and exceptional professionalism of the individuals that cared for Virginia at St. Patrick Hospital during her recent illness.
A service will be held at 2:00 pm, Friday, August 15, 2014 at the Garden City Funeral Home in Missoula, MT. Rev. John Daniels, Pastor of the First United Methodist Church will officiate. A reception will follow at Garden City Funeral Home.
Virginia Lee Rinke Meltzer, 90, passed away on August 12, 2014 at St. Patrick Hospital, Missoula, Montana. She was born on November 13, 1923 in Charlo, Montana to Burley Clarence Rinke and Anna Eliza Kelim Rinke.
Virginia moved to Missoula in 1929 to Grove Street in Orchard Homes where at age six she saw her first telephone. She attended Hawthorne School and Missoula County High School, graduating in 1941, and then attended business college. Her favorite subject was Journalism and she worked on the high school paper and yearbooks and was a member of National Quill and Scroll, achieved by having the necessary number of inches published. She had an obvious interest in letters and words.
WW II began in December after she graduated business college and Fort Missoula became an Enemy Alien Detention Center. The government needed court reporters for the hearings to be held. The college sent Virginia in response to this request and she worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service several years. Her ability to take shorthand quickly and accurately continued through her life.
She married her husband, George Calvin "Sonny" Meltzer, on May 27, 1943 after he returned from overseas. Virginia was a stay-at-home Mom and occasionally worked at making drapes and in retail for Westerners and Bob Ward and Sons. They had two sons.
Mom dabbled in many creative outlets through the years. She was an avid seamstress and bowler. She took art classes in pastels, oils and water color, and played golf. She loved to square dance. Finally, a 1979 calligraphy class clicked. She quickly became addicted, at age fifty-six and proclaimed to be "In Love with Calligraphy" ever since. She was a charter member of the Missoula Calligraphy Guild and also of the state organization known as Big Sky Scribes. In 1989 Virginia completed a calligraphy project known as a perpetual calendar made up of her favorite quotes, one per page, 367 pages. Because of her upbringing during the Great Depression and the rationing period during the Second World War, one of her favorites was "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without." She felt blessed to have met so many wonderful people through Calligraphy, those who taught her, and those she shared her skills with. She was a driving inspiration behind the letters movement in the Missoula area for many years. She won a prize for a National Envelope Contest sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers, in recognition of the art of calligraphy and the role of letters in binding people together. Her winning envelope was shown in a traveling exhibit by the Smithsonian around the country.
She will be remembered by friends and family as a wonderful, happy person who cared genuinely about those less fortunate. She expressed her gratitude openly about having lived a wonderful, fun life filled with family memories. We will all miss her.
Virginia was preceded in death by her brother, Cody Rinke; her father and mother, Burley and Anna Rinke; her husband, George "Sonny" Meltzer, and her son G. Lee Meltzer.
Our family offers heart felt thanks for the kindness, compassion and exceptional professionalism of the individuals that cared for Virginia at St. Patrick Hospital during her recent illness.
A service will be held at 2:00 pm, Friday, August 15, 2014 at the Garden City Funeral Home in Missoula, MT. Rev. John Daniels, Pastor of the First United Methodist Church will officiate. A reception will follow at Garden City Funeral Home.
Virginia moved to Missoula in 1929 to Grove Street in Orchard Homes where at age six she saw her first telephone. She attended Hawthorne School and Missoula County High School, graduating in 1941, and then attended business college. Her favorite subject was Journalism and she worked on the high school paper and yearbooks and was a member of National Quill and Scroll, achieved by having the necessary number of inches published. She had an obvious interest in letters and words.
WW II began in December after she graduated business college and Fort Missoula became an Enemy Alien Detention Center. The government needed court reporters for the hearings to be held. The college sent Virginia in response to this request and she worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service several years. Her ability to take shorthand quickly and accurately continued through her life.
She married her husband, George Calvin "Sonny" Meltzer, on May 27, 1943 after he returned from overseas. Virginia was a stay-at-home Mom and occasionally worked at making drapes and in retail for Westerners and Bob Ward and Sons. They had two sons.
Mom dabbled in many creative outlets through the years. She was an avid seamstress and bowler. She took art classes in pastels, oils and water color, and played golf. She loved to square dance. Finally, a 1979 calligraphy class clicked. She quickly became addicted, at age fifty-six and proclaimed to be "In Love with Calligraphy" ever since. She was a charter member of the Missoula Calligraphy Guild and also of the state organization known as Big Sky Scribes. In 1989 Virginia completed a calligraphy project known as a perpetual calendar made up of her favorite quotes, one per page, 367 pages. Because of her upbringing during the Great Depression and the rationing period during the Second World War, one of her favorites was "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without." She felt blessed to have met so many wonderful people through Calligraphy, those who taught her, and those she shared her skills with. She was a driving inspiration behind the letters movement in the Missoula area for many years. She won a prize for a National Envelope Contest sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers, in recognition of the art of calligraphy and the role of letters in binding people together. Her winning envelope was shown in a traveling exhibit by the Smithsonian around the country.
She will be remembered by friends and family as a wonderful, happy person who cared genuinely about those less fortunate. She expressed her gratitude openly about having lived a wonderful, fun life filled with family memories. We will all miss her.
Virginia was preceded in death by her brother, Cody Rinke; her father and mother, Burley and Anna Rinke; her husband, George "Sonny" Meltzer, and her son G. Lee Meltzer.
Our family offers heart felt thanks for the kindness, compassion and exceptional professionalism of the individuals that cared for Virginia at St. Patrick Hospital during her recent illness.
A service will be held at 2:00 pm, Friday, August 15, 2014 at the Garden City Funeral Home in Missoula, MT. Rev. John Daniels, Pastor of the First United Methodist Church will officiate. A reception will follow at Garden City Funeral Home.
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