Evelyn Moriarty

Evelyn Moriarty passed from her earthly home to join her Heavenly Father on September 22, 2025, in Great Falls, Montana.

She was born in Arrow Creek, Montana, on June 1, 1928, to Pearl Evelyn Mathews and Peter John Metrovich. She was originally named Martha Evelyn after her mother’s sister. Her dad, Peter, was a section foreman for the Chicago Milwaukee Railroad, and the family lived in a section house at Coffee Creek. Including Evelyn, her sisters and brother (Mary, Irene, Louise and Bud) had all been born in the section house.

Evelyn attended the two-story schoolhouse, Arrow Creek School, across the fence from the family’s farmhouse through sixth grade. At seventh grade, she traveled the 16 miles into Stanford, where she would graduate from Stanford High School. During her junior and senior high school years, she lived during the week at her best friend Florence “Andy” Anderson’s house in Stanford. In high school, Evelyn was a baton twirler and president of her senior class.

Upon graduation from high school, she attended Kinman Business University where she was a member of Beta Sigma Phi Sorority and where she graduated. After that she moved to Missoula, Montana, and worked at Gambles, and then to Great Falls, Montana, to work at Strain’s as a secretary and then the Anaconda Company. When she was hired at that time at the Smelter, they were only hiring “single girls,” Evelyn noted with a smile.

Evelyn married James Charles Moriarty in April of 1950 and moved back to Missoula for a while, and then back to Great Falls, where she worked as the manager’s secretary at Mountain Bell phone company. Eventually she went back to work at the Anaconda Company, where she worked for several years and made many lifelong friends.

While in Great Falls, Ev and Jim had two children, Kathleen Anne and Terrance James. The family spent time in Helena, Montana, where Ev worked for the Superintendent of Public Instruction; Missoula, Montana, where she worked for the Office of Special Education; Soda Springs, Idaho; and Columbia Falls, Montana, where she was a secretary at Anaconda Aluminum.

Ev and Jim divorced in 1982, and she moved to Somers, Montana. She lived several more years in the Flathead Valley and eventually landed back in her happy place, Great Falls.

As she looked back on her life, Ev fondly remembered trips to Pittsburgh, PA, and Oahu, Hawaii, for her grandsons’ weddings.

She was preceded in death by her son, Terry, in 2001; former husbands, Jim, Bob Lester, Pat McVay and George Feistheimel; her parents, Pearl and Peter; and all of her siblings and their spouses, Mary & Bill Reilly, Irene & Chic Graden, Louise & Orvie Lemond, and Peter “Bud” Metrovich; as well as one nephew, Jack LeMond. As an avid animal lover, Ev will be greeted on the other side of The Rainbow Bridge by her BeauBeau and Ginger.

Ev is survived by her daughter, Kathie and son-in-law, Pat Newell of The Villages, FL. Her greatest treasures in life are her grandsons, Nathan and Nick Newell and their families, Nathan’s wife, Melissa, and their two children, Paxton and Clara, of New Kensington, PA; and Nick’s wife, Jackie, and their children, Kate and Ty, of Centennial, CO. She also has a special niece, Debbie LeMond, who has been much help and comfort to her in Great Falls. And there are too many precious friends to name but all of whom Ev loved and who have cared for and about Ev in her long and blessed life.

No services are planned.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be sent to: Split Stage Productions at 4251 New Kensington, PA 15068, or Meals on Wheels, 16220 12th Ave. No, Great Falls, MT 59401.