Luella Caroline Olson

As told by her daughter, Pauline Sjordal

My mother died on Hwy. 2 West. She was headed to Libby for Nordicfest where she was going to sing Norwegian folk tunes. She called me that morning; she was so excited about her thirty minute program.

My father, Victor, was driving their car when they met a semi truck on a curve on Hwy. 2 about 30 miles south of Libby. The inexperienced truck driver took the curve too fast and overturned, spilling its load of lumber onto the road and through the windshield of the car; moving the steering wheel to the passenger side of the car. It crushed my mother’s chest. My father was barely hurt. The car was demolished. A postman saw the accident and called 911. The emergency medical technician punctured her lung and used the ambu bag to give her air until the helicopter could get her to the hospital. They took her to surgery where they realized her injuries were too serious and devastating for her to survive. Her diaphragm was shredded.

Luella was the 15th death on a very dangerous curve and the 179th person to die on Montana highways that year. The curve was removed and the highway was changed at the insistence of the state troopers after the next death. All the white crosses are on one large cross to remind people of the tragedies near Libby, MT.

May 3, 1912 -

September 24, 1985