Myrtle Josephine Rivard, 89

MYRTLE JOSEPHINE RIVARD

After 89 years and 22 days with us, Myrtle Josephine Rivard went home to join her beloved Bud on Friday, February 5, 2010. She was born to Maurice O’Neill and Florida (Ida) Fontaine on January 14, 1921, in Rainy River, Ontario, the fourth of five children.
Myrt met the love of her life, Earl “Bud” Rivard, while ice skating on the Rainy River at the age of eleven years old during the winter of 1931-1932. Nine and a half years later, on June 24, 1941, she became his bride in the Notre Dame Catholic Church in Rainy River, Ontario.
Bud and Myrt spent their lives farming and raising their six children east of Baudette in the Silver Creek area in Gudrid Township. Myrt was a talented seamstress, making clothes for herself and her children. Through the years, in addition to being a wife and mother, Myrt worked as a meat cutter and wrapper at the Cloverleaf Creamy and later, as a clerk in the Curtis Rexall Drug store for 17 years.
She was a member of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church Ladies’ Society, Women of the Moose Lodge, and a quilting group that made quilts for World Relief.
Myrt’s parents, husband, brothers Frank and Lawrence O’Neill, and sister Agnes Lindgren preceded her in death. Her six children survive her. They are Carol (Mrs. Roger) Birkeland of Baudette, MN; Marlyss (Mrs. Herminio) Hernandez of Freeport, FL.; Bill (Phyllis) Rivard of Baudette, Ron (JoAnn) Rivard of Folsom, CA.; Dale (Janet) Rivard of Prior Lake, MN.; and Bob (Rhonda) Rivard of Grass Valley, CA. Roy O’Neill, a brother, of Summerland, British Columbia, 16 grandchildren, 22 great grandchildren, eight nieces, ten nephews, along with numerous great nieces and nephews also survive Myrt. She will live forever in the hearts of all who loved her.
Visitation was on Thursday, February 11, from 5 to 7 PM at Helgeson Funeral Chapel in Baudette. A Mass of Christian Burial was at 11 AM on Friday, February 12, 2010, at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Baudette with burial in the Silver Creek Cemetery.