Alvira Smith

Alvira Klies Smith, 93, died on Tuesday, October 2, 2013 at her home at Park Plaza, Great Falls, after a brief illness.A funeral service will be held at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 at Hillcrest Lawn Memorial Chapel with a visitation held one hour prior to the service.Schnider Funeral Home is handling arrangements.Alvira was born in Great Falls, Montana on December 11, 1919.She attended Great Falls "public" Schools, completing her senior year at Coastalaya Finishing School in Palo Alto, CA.She returned to Great Falls and worked at Gore Field, where she met and married army pilot Morrison Smitty Smith.They moved to Goldsboro, North Carolina where they owned a car dealership and tobacco farm.The couple became involved in state and national politics, and Alvira was North Carolinas alternate delegate to the San Francisco National Re"public"an Convention.Morrison preceded her in death. Alvira moved back to Great Falls in 1983 to care for her mother.She is a member of First Congregational United Church of Christ, served as a church board member, secretary of the finance committee, and chairman of the fund raising for the new church. Alvira was also a hospital volunteer and once headed a local garden club.Alvira enjoyed reading, traveling and music, especially at the blues festivals.Alviras parents, Ed and Martha (Boettcher) Klies were early business visionaries.Klies started the Great Falls Coach Lines, which replaced the streetcar system.The Klies family owned a local car dealership and owned Phillips and Glacier county ranches and a Neihart mine operation.Alvira often recalled memories of her busy life in Great Falls and San Francisco with her brother, Edmund. She loved joining in the family celebrations of her cousins.Alvira is survived by her cousins, Jack, Larry, Donald and Dick Boettcher, Art Montana and Nina Parker.She was preceded in death by her parents; and brother.Memorials in Alviras name may be made to the Animal Foundation of Great Falls, PO Box 3426, Great Falls, MT 59403 or the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 2900 9th Ave. So., Great Falls, MT 59405.