Debbie Tschida, 75

God graced the world with the arrival of Debbie Alfonsina (Hohman) Tschida on Sept. 26, 1951, in Cut Bank.

It was a remarkably cold day for early autumn, even for the Hi-Line – the high that day never got above freezing. However, Debbie’s arrival soon broke that early autumn cold snap, with the temperature rebounding to 69 degrees by Sept. 28.

So, it went throughout Debbie’s 75 years of life. Although often experiencing a cold world, as a true Hi-Line lady, she brought warmth and cheer everywhere she went.

A fourth-generation Montanan, Debbie was the second child of her parents, Bill (Wilbur) and Fonsie (Alfonsina) Hohman, arriving some two years after her older brother, Rick. They all doted on her from the moment of her arrival.

Bill, who ran the Cut Bank Creamery, had a mattress under his desk where his “Debbo” could nap whenever she got tired. Fonsie, who worked at a local clothing store, always made sure Debbie was well dressed. Rick included her in all his adventures and play.

And Debbie had many adventures both in and around Cut Bank. Swimming and bicycle riding around town mostly occupied her summers. She hunted with her dad and brother in the fall as well, getting her own hunter's safety permit in 1964.

Bill’s creamery supplied the Cut Bank Air Force Station, part of the DEW Line, with all their perishable food items. The creamery also served as the station’s bus arrival and departure point when young airmen stationed there came into town.

So, the Hohmans, including Debbie, became honorary members of the base, often hunting with base members, eating at the base dining facility, and watching movies at the small base theater. Local dances also occupied many of their weekends.

In 1967, the family moved back to Missoula, where Bill first met Fonsie, so Rick could attend the University of Montana.

Taken out of the Montana small-town environment she had known all her life in the middle of her junior year of high school, Debbie nonetheless soon adapted to “big city” life in Missoula. She graduated from Sentinel High School in 1969.

She also worked in the kitchen at St. Patrick Hospital, where she met her future husband, Jeff, both during and after high school.

She and Jeff married soon after he enlisted in the Air Force in the fall of 1970. The two then spent the next 28 years serving their country together, he as the service member and she as his partner and the center of the life they would build together.

They served at 10 different locations during those 28 years, overseas in Turkey, Okinawa and England, and within the U.S. in Mississippi, Nebraska, South Dakota, Ohio, Florida, Texas and Colorado.

They also raised six wonderful children during those years, one son and five daughters. Debbie always joked that she wanted to raise a basketball team and a cheerleader, and that God granted her wish, but that she had neglected to specify which sexes they should be.

Ending their military service in 1998, Debbie and Jeff then spent their next 17 years together in Colorado Springs, where Jeff worked as a defense contractor maintaining and upgrading the various NORAD systems in Cheyenne Mountain.

During their last nine years in the Air Force, Debbie had served as the president of the Peterson AFB Enlisted Wives Club, where she got to meet many nationally known figures, such as General Colin Powell and General John Shalikashvili, and their spouses. She also served as the volunteer head of the Peterson Family Services Loan Closet, where arriving and departing families would borrow the essential household items they needed either at the beginning or end of their assignment to the base.

For two years, Debbie also served as the house mother for the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at the University of Montana, loving well the young women she would come to refer to as “my girls.”

After 45 years of life away from home, Debbie and Jeff retired back to their beloved western Montana. They first lived for a year in Ronan and then moved to a house with a “million-dollar view” overlooking Polson Bay and the magnificent Missions.

Active in the Polson community, Debbie financially supported many local, regional and state nonprofits such as the Mission Valley Animal Shelter, Polson Loaves and Fishes, the Polson Rural Fire Department, the Ronan Breadbasket, St. Ignatius Mission, Care Net of Missoula, Clear Choice Clinic of Kalispell, Safe Harbor of Ronan and Catholic Social Services of Montana.

Debbie also helped Jeff pick up food for the Polson Loaves and Fishes food pantry once a week, prepared and served the community dinner served once a month at Immaculate Conception Parish, and served as the treasurer of their local HOA.

She particularly loved summers in Montana and would limit her travel in the summer so she could spend time in the land where she was born and raised.

On Oct. 11, 2026, the day she passed, winter made his first appearance for the year. I don’t see that as a coincidence. Having chased winter weather away when she first arrived, her departure allowed the cold to once again have its way with us.

Debbie was treasured and is already missed by her family: her husband of nearly 56 years, Jeff; their son, Jeremy, and his wife, Marcy; their daughters, Derrie and her husband Ken, Michelle and her husband, Russ, LeAnn, Tristin and her husband Kyle, and Heather and her husband Chase; along with 30 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Those grandkids were the light of her life, and their mere presence never failed to bring a large smile to her face.

Debbie was preceded in death by her parents, Bill (Wilbur) and Fonsie (Alfonsina Martello) Hohman, and her brother, Rick, along with a granddaughter, Eve Mahlke.

All her life, Debbie took seriously the Biblical admonition to care for the least among us. So, if you wish to remember this Hi-Line lady, please donate to a charity in the Mission Valley or surrounding area that protects life for the unborn, supports abused women or single moms raising children, feeds the hungry, or cares for our elders. Doing so will continue her legacy of service.

Funeral Mass of Christian Burial will take place at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Polson. A Vigil will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, and a visitation will be held on Tuesday morning from 10-11 a.m., both at the church. Cremation rites will follow.

Arrangements are under the care of The Lake Funeral Home and Crematory.