Anna Stuhlreiter Griffith

Anna Stuhlreiter Griffith, 90, of Libby, died Thursday, May 8 at the Libby Care Center from natural causes.

She was born Aug. 14, 1917 in Libby, the third of five daughters of Joseph and Magdalena Poesing Stuhlreiter.

After her mother was widowed when “Annie” was just six years old, she took responsibility for helping raise her younger siblings. While growing up in Libby, Anna worked at the Kootenai Theater.

After graduating from Libby High School in 1935, Anna attended Northwestern Business College in Spokane, Wash.

Talented in business, Anna held positions at the First State Bank of Libby, the Utah Construction Company of Alaska, and E.W. Elliott Construction and the Kenworth Motor Truck Company in Seattle.

It was while she was working at the bank in Libby that she met her future husband, Robert F. Griffith, a Washington native who was doing some mining in the area.

After their marriage in 1945, Anna made homes with Bob in Washington, North and South Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia, where Bob worked as a mining engineer for the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Washington, D.C. and Anna was a homemaker and the consummate hostess.

Anna and Bob had one child, a son, James R. Griffith, who died in 1972 at the age of 18 as a result of an automobile accident.

The couple later retired to Camano Island, Wash., and after her husband’s death in 1986, Anna decided to move back to her hometown of Libby, where she spent the last years of her life and continued to share her generosity of spirit.

Anna was preceded in death by her husband Bob, her son Jim, and sisters Mary Kerkes, Elizabeth Grambauer, and Margaret Stuhlreiter.

Anna is survived by her sister Ellen Wilson of Missoula and numerous nieces and nephews.

The Nelson & Vial Funeral Home in Libby is in charge of arrangements, and at Anna’s request, no service will be held.