Jennie Celeste (Hebbard) Hellinger, age 98, a teacher and long time Devon area farm wife from Shelby , passed away peacefully at her home on Friday, November 24, 2006. Memorial services will be 2:00 p.m. Thursday, November 30, at the Whitted Funeral Chapel with burial of ashes to follow in the Mountain View Cemetery .  The family suggests memorials be directed to the Marias Heritage Center or the Marias Museum .  Condolences for the family may be sent to www.whittedfuneralchapel.com.

Survivors include her sons Donald (Bob), and his wife Marie, Hellinger and Dean, and his wife Patricia, Hellinger both of Devon ; grandsons, James Darwin Hellinger of Devon and Douglas (Dana) Hellinger of Ledger; as well as two great-grandchildren, Riley and Madeline of Ledger. She is preceded in death by her husband Donald.

Jennie was born October 24, 1908 at Kalispell to John & Guenbold (Roberts) Hebbard. The family moved to the homestead, one mile north of Devon in 1910. She attended grade school there until 1919 when the family moved back to the Flathead Valley . She finished the elementary grades at rural Montford School and graduated from Kalispell High School . She attended two years of Normal School training as a teacher. She then went to summer school at the University of Montana and was teaching in her first rural school two months before her 18^th birthday in 1926.

Jennie returned to summer school in Missoula and her second teaching experience was in Devon in 1927 where a sudden winter snow storm hit, stranding many families.  

A day after the 1928/1929 school year she married Donald Hellinger in Devon and lived on the family farm north of town. They remained on the farm until 1956 when they moved to Shelby . She and Don traveled extensively throughout Europe, South America and Australia as well as the United States . In 1999, Jennie sold her home and moved into the Marias Heritage Center .

She enjoyed her flowers and large yard, playing bridge and she was a long time member of the Shelby Book Club.