On the day with the fewest hours of sunlight all year long and a blustery, cold wind, Kalispell residents came together to remember those who had died without a place to call home.

Kalispell, in an event sponsored by the Samaritan House shelter, joined more than 150 other cities across the country recognizing National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. Events were also held in Billings, Missoula and Helena, although this was the first year had Kalispell joined them.

During the event, Samaritan House Executive Director Chris Krager read the names of the 39 homeless individuals who died in Montana in 2011 and told a little about them.

They had died of everything from infection, cancer and suicide to freezing, drowning and being hit by a train or murdered.

Of those 39, three were from Kalispell.

One of them was 47-year-old Cynthia “Cindy” Ray Buck.

Buck was well known around town, having sought help from several local agencies and come into contact with myriad residents. Before Wednesday’s ceremony, Krager said she had come to Samaritan House several years before she died.

“She was very open about her life,” Krager said. “She obviously had times when she was up and when she was down, and she was pretty honest about it.”

Along with being homeless, Buck had struggled with alcoholism.

During the ceremony, an unnamed woman shared her experience with Buck. She said she first met Buck a week before she died, when she found her sprawled in an alley behind her house, refusing to get up.

In the following days, the woman found a twin mattress in “excellent shape” being thrown away. She gave the mattress to Buck, along with blankets and a pillow. Buck slept on that mattress in an abandoned shed, where she was found dead Oct. 30.

The state crime lab reported that her death had been brought about by low sodium — believed to be the result of alcoholism and poor nutrition.

“Cynthia had a peaceful going in shelter,” the woman said. “I hope that Cynthia now is truly at peace.”

At Buck’s Nov. 3 memorial service, more than 50 people had turned out to remember the woman they described as having the “greatest smile” and a kind heart and who “would’ve given you the clothes off her back.”

She graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1982 before marrying Lowell Buck in 1983. In 1984, she gave birth to a son, Michael James Buck.

Michael and his fiancee, Nicole, were scheduled to get married just a few weeks after Buck’s death, and she had been excited to go to the ceremony in California. Nicole shared a particularly fond memory of the movie “Roadhouse” coming on TV and Buck squealing, “Ooh! Patrick Swayze!”

“I can’t thank her enough for having my wonderful fiance,” Nicole said.

A homeless man named Gary shared about his relationship with Buck, whom he had seen the week before she died. Gary had been ordered by court to attend Alcoholics Anonymous, and he had tried to get Buck to go with him, but she refused.

“As I was riding away, she said, ‘Gary, pray for me,’” Gary said. “I stopped my bike and turned back and said, ‘There are angels all around you!’ When I look to the west from this day on I will think of her when I see the sunset.”

Despite her troubled life, Buck always held tight to her faith, according to attendees at her memorial service. Several shared examples of times she would ask them to pray for her or say she was praying for them.

The service ended with Bette Midler’s “The Rose” softly playing over the muted tears and silent thoughts of those who had called Buck their sister, mother, co-worker and friend.

“Homelessness causes the deck to be stacked against you,” Krager said Wednesday. “Access to medical care is difficult, access to necessary medicine and being warm, exacerbating any illness because you’re outside all day, all night. All of those factors combine to make it a very difficult row to hoe, a very difficult life.”

The other two people who died homeless in Kalispell in 2011 were identified at the memorial as Lee Traylor and Paul Sibley.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.