Anna M. 'Billy' Irish

Anna M. (Billy) Irish, 95, of Lewistown, Montana, died Wednesday morning, December 20th, 2017 in the Central Montana Medical Center of natural causes.  She was born January 26, 1922 in Lewistown, the daughter of Frank A. and Martha L. (Hruska) Matejcek.  She graduated from Fergus County High School in 1939.  She then attended and completed Normal School in Great Falls and received her 2-year teaching certificate.  She returned to the Lewistown area and taught at the Upper Cottonwood School until her marriage on March 1, 1942 to Alden E. Irish.  She raised her children and worked on the ranch with her husband until 1961 when she began teaching again at the Upper Cottonwood School.  In 1968, she and her husband and youngest son Ted, moved to Marysville, Washington where she taught school at Marysville Elementary, until she and her husband retired in 1981 and moved to Livingston, MT.  In 1987 they returned to Lewistown where they lived until his death in 2003.  She has continued to make her home in Lewistown until the time of her death.

Billy's priority was always family first. She loved being a farmwife, her flower gardening, camping,  sewing, crocheting, and later in life wrote her memoire, "Billy's Story", sharing the story of the first 20 years of her life. 

She is survived by two of her sons: Alden R. (Patricia) Irish of Lewistown and William F. (Lynn) Irish of Bozeman, and a daughter Judith Wentworth of Lewistown, MT; daughter-in-law Janet Rathbun Johnson Irish of Everett, WA, 12 grandchildren, 28 grandchildren, sisters-in-laws: Mary I. Lowe of Cashmere, WA and Ruth I. Smith of Lewistown and many nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and great-nephews. 

In addition to her husband, she was preceded death by her son Theodore Irish, and her parents, and her brother Albert E. Matejcek. 

Memorial Services for Anna M. (Billy) Irish will be 11:00 AM, Friday, December 29, 2017, in St. Leo's Catholic Church with committal to be in the Beaver Creek Cemetery at a later date.  The Cloyd Funeral Home is assisting the family. 

Friends are asked to make memorials to the charity of their choice and they may be left at the Cloyd Funeral Home.  Condolences for the family may be posted online at www.cloydfuneralhome.com