Verona Vivian (Serfling) Hogue, 77, passed away Monday, May 5, 2008, at Kalispell Regional Medical Center in Kalispell. She was born Oct. 24, 1930, in Northville, S.D., to Stacy Claire and Blanch (Haine) Serfling.

Verona graduated valedictorian of her high-school class in 1948. After attending summer school at Northern State Teachers College in Aberdeen, S.D., she taught in a one-room schoolhouse for two years.

On July 15, 1949, Verona married her high-school sweetheart, Warren Hogue. They resided on the family farm outside Northville until 1952, when Warren went to work for the Forest Service in the Black Hills of South Dakota. After residing at the Tee Pee Ranger Station on the South Dakota/Wyoming border for three years, Verona and Warren moved to Custer, S.D. They left Custer in 1960 and moved to the Flathead Valley, first living in Kalispell and then in Bigfork in 1963. She attended Flathead Valley Community College and graduated in 1976. She then went on to work at Head Start until both she and Warren retired in 1986.

Verona was very active in many social groups, and always had a smile and a kind word for everyone. She was a member of the Puttering Potters ceramics group for more than 40 years, one of Bigfork's Red Hat Ladies and a regular at the Montana Athletic Club's water aerobics classes.

She was also a devoted member of the Community United Methodist Church in Bigfork. She will be dearly missed.

Verona was a devoted and loving wife, mother, grandma and great-grandma, who always was doing special things for the ones she loved.

Verona was preceded in death by her parents; her only brother, Ernest Serfling; and her youngest daughter, Sylvia Hogue.

She is survived by her husband and the love of her life, Warren Hogue, of Bigfork; a daughter, Linda Brevik, and her husband, Gerald, of Somers; a son, Clayton Hogue, and his friend, Daniel Kiermaier, of St. Petersburg, Fla.; her grandson, Mark Brevik, and his wife, Christina, granddaughter, Debbie Savik, and her husband, Lon, all of Somers; her grandson, Tom Gordon, of Kalispell; and her great-grandchildren, Archie Brevik, Soraya Brevik, Ashlyn Savik and Austin Savik.

A celebration of Verona's life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 10, at the Crossroads Christian Fellowship, 7465 Montana 35, in Bigfork, with the Rev. Kathy Young of the Community United Methodist Church of Bigfork officiating.

Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home and Crematory is caring for Verona's family. You are invited to go to www.jgfuneralhome.com to offer condolences and sign Verona's guest book.