Geraldine Rose Mihelich

January 14, 1940 - December 22, 2020

Just a few weeks short of her 81st birthday, and after having lived at The Springs of Butte for almost two years, Geri died, peacefully, in her sleep due to complications from dementia and COVID-19. She was a proud 1953 graduate of Emerson Grade School and a just-as-proud 1957 graduate of Girls' Central High School. She always, and fondly, remembered her freshman year at Central. In 1953 the Maroons beat Butte High, 6-0, for the first time in 28 years.

Following her graduation from Girls' Central, she attended Western Montana College in Dillon for two years, before she embarked on a teaching career that would take her first to Shelby, MT and then to Billings, where she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Special Education at Eastern Montana College. After receiving her degree, she returned to Butte, where she taught, for a short time, at the Washington School on East Granite St. After her stay in Butte, she managed to find her way to Terry, MT where she served, primarily, as a substitute teacher.

Her life was not without its trials and tribulations, but through it all she endured. Finally, and after having lived in Denver for several years, she brought herself back to Butte where she began a successful second career working for the pre-Release Center and, eventually, for its Connections program. In her role at Connections she proved that she could fill beds with the best of them, and she kept at it until she retired at 70. She cherished her years with Connections and the relationships she created with her co-workers and with various parole officers throughout the state of Montana. It seemed that everyone in the state knew Geri. She was missed when she retired, and she will be just as missed now by those who knew her and laughed with her. Fittingly, Geri died where she belonged, in Butte, Montana -- always The Richest Hill on Earth.

She was preceded in death by her father, Tony Mihelich, and mother, Rose Mihelich, along with Aunts Elsie McCoy, Steff Toshoff, Evelyn "Tootsie" Shea and Helen Lynch and Uncles Albert Polich, Tony "Tots" Polich, Emil Ozanich, Jim McCoy Jack Lynch and John T. Shea as well as by cousin Gerianne Shea. She is survived by her brother Emil, her three sons, Mark Prater (Miquela), John Mihelich (Debbie Storrs) and Dean Prater, her two daughters Mona Rubino (Chris) and Angela Prater. Also, she is survived by various cousins, both male and female, seemingly scattered throughout the West.

Once our world is safe from COVID and once a sense of sanity returns, the family will have an appropriate memorial service for Geri. In the meantime, memories of her, and her smile, will live on.