LIVE STREAM:   LIFE COVENANT CHURCH

Throughout her life Grace Rispens was many different things to many different people, a sister, daughter, mother, aunt, grandmother and more. Everything she did, she filled with love and courage.

Grace died on Oct. 4, 2022 at her home surrounded by family after a sudden Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis earlier this fall. She was 83-years-old. 

Grace was born to her parents Lute and Katrina Rozema on Sept. 26, 1939 in Klazienaveen, Netherlands, a peat colony just a few miles from the German border. Much of her early childhood was affected by conflict during World War II.

When she was about 13-years-old the Rozema family set sail and immigrated to North America. After touching down in Montreal the family traveled in train cars to Rocky Mountain House, Alberta where they farmed. Grace eventually moved to Lethbridge, Alberta where she worked as a bank teller and a baker. 

Grace met her husband Sid at a wedding in Lethbridge and they later got engaged on her 21st birthday. The two were married on Mar. 24, 1961 and spent 60 wonderful years together. Together they had four sons, Leslie, Thomas, Daniel and Mark. Shortly after the wedding, they moved to the family farm just east of Conrad. 

Following the birth of their first son the family moved to Shelby and Sid began his career with Buttrey Food store. She became an American citizen in May 1970. In 1971 the Rispens moved to Helena after Sid was transferred to manage the Buttrey’s there. In Helena, Grace worked as a bookkeeper for Helena Cable TV and was the accounting manager at the Colonial Inn all while wrangling her boys. 

They bought the family farm in Conrad four years later and they’d travel up on the weekends to operate the farm until all the boys had graduated from Helena High School. In 1992, Sid and Grace moved to the farm full-time.

In 2000 they moved back to Helena to be closer to family. Together with her sons and their families the Rispens made memories camping at Sun Canyon Lodge, boating at Canyon Ferry Lake and traveling. For many years, Sid and Grace snowbirded to Yuma, Arizona.

Grace always made sure everyone was taken care of and well fed with plenty of servings of hamburger soup and stroopwafel cookies. Her boisterous, very Dutch, expressions will be missed, but are carried on by her children and grandchildren. 

Grace is preceded in death by her husband Sid, her parents, her sisters Hilly, Alice and Trudy, her brothers Henry and Hein, her nephew Steven, niece Marie Anna and granddaughter Julieann. 

She is survived by her brother Leo Rozema, sister Kathie Bezemer,  sons Les (Wendy), Tom (Betsy), Dan (Vadine), Mark (Jane), as well as 11 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews. 

A viewing will be held at Life Covenant Church in Helena on Oct. 10 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. A service will follow at the same location beginning at 2 p.m. The service will be streamed on the church’s Facebook page. 

Service Schedule

Viewing

12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Monday October 10, 2022

Life Covenant Church

800 N. Hoback Street

Helena, Montana 59601

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Memorial Service

2:00 p.m.

Monday October 10, 2022

Life Covenant Church

800 N. Hoback Street

Helena, Montana 59601

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Reception

Following the Memorial Service

Monday October 10, 2022

Life Covenant Church

800 N. Hoback Street

Helena, Montana 59601

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