Nell W. McLouth

Nell W. McLouth, age 82, born Mary Manell Withrow, passed away of natural causes on January 14, 2018 at Marias Medical Center in Shelby, Montana. Services will be on Saturday, March 17, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. at the Whitted Funeral Chapel in Cut Bank. In keeping with her wishes, private inurnment will follow, next to her late husband, Lynn William McLouth, at the family plot at Mountain View Cemetery in Shelby.

A long-time area resident and businesswoman, Nell’s first introduction to Big Sky Country was in 1952 when, after her husband completed his service as an M.P. in the United States Army, they arrived in Sunburst on a cold, winter day from her home state of Georgia. Nell immediately loved Montana though and she thrived here, eventually owning and operating the Farmers Insurance Agency in Cut Bank for thirty-five years – where she became Montana Hi-Line’s “go to” agent for crop insurance, retiring only after deciding against adding “computer tech savvy” to her skillset. Nell, her husband, and their sons Bill and John built a cabin near Essex on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River across from Glacier National Park, where they enjoyed weekends and holidays for many years – and even snowmobiled to get there in winter.

An avid bridge player, Nell was a member of the VFW auxiliary, the Daughters of the Nile, and the Order of the Eastern Star, a deacon at the First Presbyterian Church of Cut Bank, and a regular at the Cut Bank Wednesday Night bowling league. She also enjoyed dancing with Mr. McLouth at the Cut Bank Elk’s Club (with the occasional dry martini there), golfing, ocean cruises, and listening to her beloved gospel music. After Mr. McLouth passed of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 1998, Nell found companionship with the late Neil Shepherd of Chester, widower of Alice, both of whom had been close, family friends.

Nell’s survivors include her sons and their spouses Shirley and Robert, her sister-in-law Luella Pedersen of Shelby and family, niece Irene Wevley of Cut Bank and family, cousins Dave Cusick and Eileen Pierson of Kalispell and their families, her close friends and Essex neighbors Ken and Mickey Wolf of Shelby and close friend and Cut Bank neighbor Frances Smith of Great Falls, her nephew Mike Rhodes and his wife Pat of Ball Ground, Georgia and family, nephew Dan Rhodes of Mount Sterling, Kentucky, niece Debbie Gerchman of Cleveland, Georgia, and the staff of Marias Care Center in Shelby, who shared her life and care for the last several years.

Predeceasing Nell are her husband, her parents John Osborn Withrow and Beatrice Withrow of Georgia, her sister Blanche Faye Rhodes and husband Leonard of Georgia, her sister Ann Cagle, her husband Clarence, and their daughter Sandra, all of Georgia, her mother-in-law Louise G. McLouth of Shelby, her cousin Carole Cusick of Kalispell, and Mr. Shepherd.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent in Nell’s name or anonymously to her favorite charity, Shriner’s Hospital for Children, https://donate.lovetotherescue.org, 911 West Fifth Street, Spokane Washington 99204 (509.455.7844).