Emily Denise Healey passed away from a variety of natural causes on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014, in Boise, Idaho.

      Denise was born to Dennis and Emily Leary on May 29, 1939, in Butte.   The younger sister of Marylin, the two sisters grew up in Butte.   Denise graduated from Butte High before going on to graduate Kappa Alpha Theta from Montana State University in 1959 with master’s degrees in both English and French.

      Denise had a brief teaching career, during which she also spent a year teaching English in France before returning to meet her husband, Jack, in Seattle.   She and Jack had two sons, and Denise decided to be a stay-at-home-mom and devoted her life to her family and raising her two sons.   She and her family later moved to Montana and she greatly enjoyed her life in the place where she loved, the Bitterroot Valley.   She had a great passion for her pets, friends and family, country music, camping and drives up in the mountains.   She made lots of wonderful friends in the Bitterroot Valley, along with some volunteer work she did for a few organizations.

      She is survived by her two sons, John and Eric, her sister Marylin, her husband, Bill, and their three children, Terry, Billy and Jim.

      Services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2014, at Whitesitt Funeral Home, 314 Church St. in Stevensville.   Interment will follow in the Riverside Cemetery.   Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at www.whitesittfuneralhome.com.

      Express condolences at www.mtstandard.com/obits.