Lola Mae Lindeen Duncan 

The Billings Gazette, January 18, 2003 11:00 pm

Lola Mae Lindeen Duncan 

FREMONT, Calif. - Lola Mae Lindeen Duncan passed away Jan. 9, 2003, in Fremont.

She was born Jan. 21, 1919, to Alvin Lindeen and Ruby Bruce Lindeen at her parents' homestead "north of the river" near Pompeys Pillar, Mont.  She grew up at Corinth and on Fly Creek, attending public school in Big Horn and Yellowstone counties, and graduating from Eastern Montana State Normal School in 1938 with a teaching certificate.  Lola taught at the Huntley Project School in Worden, Mont., from 1938 to 1943, when she enlisted in the United States Navy.  She served her country as an aerographer's mate, 1st Class, during WWII, supporting the naval airmen with weather and code information.

After leaving the Navy, Lola relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and attended the University of California at Berkeley, earning her bachelor's degree in 1949.

While living in Oakland, she met and married her husband of 35 years, Clifford Duncan.  They had two children, Ruth and Douglas, and moved to the house in Piedmont, which she occupied for 49 years.  She returned to teaching, the passion of her life, in 1956, and taught in the Oakland Unified School District until 1983, when she retired in order to take care of her ailing husband.  After his passing in 1984, Lola enjoyed many activities involving travel, art and music.

She moved to a retirement community near her daughter in Fremont in early 2002, where she and her kitty were appropriately pampered.

Lola is survived by her daughter, Ruth Duncan; her son, Doug Duncan; her grandson, Galen Cook; her sister-in-law, Phyllis Lindeen; her sister-in-law, Lorainne O'Neal; and numerous nieces, nephews and their children.

No formal services will be held, but her family asks her friends to each take a moment to remember her in their own way.  Her remains will be interred with her husband's in the Military Cemetery in Fayetteville, Ark.

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Posted in Obituaries  on Saturday, January 18, 2003 11:00 pm

Obituary reproduced with permission of The Billings Gazette.