Georgia Lodders

Georgia Lodders, 90

Georgia Dell Lodders passed away Sunday, April 8, 2018 at the Anaconda Community Hospital. She was born in Lewistown, Montana on August 3, 1927. Her childhood was spent helping her parents and two sisters, Jane and Verda Mae, at the dairy ranch on Warm Springs Creek northwest of Lewistown. Georgia preferred to be outside helping her father taking a horse to bring in the cows twice a day for milking, driving the tractor for haying, and caring for the chickens, sheep and calves. Through grade school, she and her sisters attended the one room rural school, Shiny Mountain. In 1939, when Georgia was 12 years old, Rural Electric brought electricity to the ranch. For high school, she boarded in town during the week, and was a good student and really enjoyed being in school plays. She graduated from Fergus High School, with honors in 1945. She attended a two-week course in Billings and earned a "Normal School Teaching Certificate" and then returned to teach a year at the Shiny Mountain school, having four students at different grade levels to teach.

Georgia attended the University of Montana in Missoula, where she met the love of her life, Denny Lodders on a University Ski Club trip, when he pulled her out of a snow bank after she fell off the rope tow. Denny had just returned to the University from serving in the 10th Mountain Ski troops fighting in the mountains of Italy during WWII and was on the U of M Ski Team. Georgia and Denny were married in 1947, and while still attending the U of M, they started one of the earliest ski areas in Montana, it was called Diamond Mountain and was up the Blackfoot River near Missoula. They cleared runs, put in rope tows, and built a lodge, where Georgia cooked hot dogs and hamburgers and sold tickets for $1.00 a day and 50 cents for a half day of skiing.

When Denny graduated from the U of M in Journalism, he had a job lined up in Washington DC as Editor of the National Disabled American Veterans Magazine. Georgia and Denny moved back east, and it was an exciting and interesting time, but a very different way of life than they were used to in Montana. Georgia and Denny had four children; Ron, Linda, Marty and Doug. After Doug was born, they decided that they wanted to raise their family out west, and they moved to Denver, Colorado. Denny started an Advertising Agency with Georgia helping out and they designed and had built a family home in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. The Lodders family was very active outdoors, with fishing trips, backpack trips with horses, going to their cabin at Grand Lake, Colorado, and most of all - skiing. Georgia began her long career working at Colorado Ski Country, putting out the ski area snow reports, promoting advertising for the Colorado ski industry, and arranging training sessions for Ski Areas to attend in training and maintaining ski tow personnel, snow making, avalanche control, food services, etc. She organized and accompanied Ski Area Owners on a trip to France to see the new Gondolas being built there, when the ski areas here mostly had T-bars and one and two-person chair tows. She was also instrumental in changing ski area employees from ski bums to professionals with potential for careers in the ski industry. She developed a Ski Museum and Library to preserve the history of the rapid development of the Ski Industry after WW11. She was known as "Ski Mom" and was inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in 1994 and was given a Gold Pass to ski free at most ski areas in Colorado.

Georgia lived at the family home in Wheat Ridge. Colorado for 46 years. After Denny's passing and her children had their own homes, she rented out the basement of her home to numerous younger people, mostly with Montana roots, who would end up staying for maybe years, and becoming life-long friends. They also kept her involved with a fun social life of parties and activities, like having tickets to watch the Denver Bronco games. Georgia's son, Doug also lived in Denver and she was able to spend a lot of fun times with him and her grandchildren, Ben, Matt and Jessica. Georgia also made annual vacation trips to Montana to see her other three children and the grandchildren there that she was so proud of. She liked to travel and had three trips to Europe, a cruise trip, and a trip to Russia as well. When her daughter, Linda, was in the Peace Corps, Georgia came to visit in Paraguay, South America and they traveled to Brazil and Chile on a vacation.

After retiring from Colorado Ski Country, Georgia moved to Anaconda, Montana in 2000 to be a neighbor with daughter Linda. Coming from Denver, she loved living in the small town, where people are so friendly, and she could drive around so easy. Georgia and Linda bought a motor home 15 years ago and had a lot of fun traveling to Canada, National Parks in the west, Mexico Baja area and a great three-month trip around Alaska. For the past nine winters, they have been going in their motor home to their favorite desert location at Imperial Dam on the Colorado River about 35 miles north of Yuma, Arizona. Georgia loved being able to walk outside in the sunshine, go on picnics at the lakes, and enjoy all the social activities with other campers, ending the day out at a campfire under the stars listening to peoples' stories and singing family camp songs. At the BLM camping area, people come from all over the US and Canada, and Georgia was always interested in meeting new people and getting to see all of her special "winter friends" again each year.

Last summer Georgia had a 90th birthday celebration, which was a great gathering of family and friends from all the stages in her long life. Family and friends came from Colorado, Seattle, Chicago, and all over Montana. Many came from Lewistown, representing the neighboring ranches where she spent her childhood. There were even 2 of her former students when she taught at the Shiny Mountain school. There were neighbors from Wheat Ridge that lived there and played with Georgia's children when they were growing up and going to school. A large number of her special friends from the later years when they rented part of her house also came to see her. Georgia loved getting to see everyone and talk of fun memories they had together over so many years of friendship.

Georgia never smoked, rarely drank alcohol, and the worst words she ever said were "darn it" and "Crum Bum", but she was the least judgmental person anyone could ever meet. She always looked for and found the best in everyone, making them feel special, the very definition of unconditional love and friendship. She never had a bad word to say about anyone and was a believer in the old saying that if you could not say something nice, then say nothing at all.

Georgia was proceeded in death by her parents, husband Denny, and sister Jane Worsdell. She is survived by her sister, Verda Mae Horvath and her children; Ron Lodders (Carla), Linda Lodders, Marty York (Randy), and Doug Lodders. She has five grandchildren; Justin Lodders (Megan), Jordan Crosby (Brian), Morgan Singer (Justin), Ben Schmeeckly and Jessica Owings (Matt). She has seven great-grandchildren and five nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Life will be planned for later in the summer.