Floerchinger, Dorothy, 1901-1996

Dorothy Floerchinger, the daughter of Ralph and Willie Mae Bracegirdle Bruner, was born on February 22, 1901, in Scotia, Nebraska. Graduating from Valier High School in Great Falls, Montana, in 1920, Mrs. Floerchinger began a career of teaching in Pondera County Schools. Due to an acute teacher shortage following World War I, the State Superintendent of Schools issued a special permit allowing her to teach elementary school with no professional training. She married Louis Floerchinger on November 15, 1924 and raised five children on the family farm near Conrad, Montana.

Throughout her life, Mrs. Floerchinger was an avid historian. Mrs. Floerchinger published several historical pieces on Northern Montana - from the history of the City of Conrad to the history of Pondera County. She did extensive research on the Conrad family of Kalispell, who founded the city of Conrad, and was involved in the preservation of local Conrad history. She also wrote literary pieces, publishing an anthology of poems and short stories called Highway to Happiness, a biographical tribute to a Conrad minister and humanitarian called To Speak of Love Was Not Enough, and her family history, The Bruner Bunch .

Mrs. Floerchinger was active in many organizations, including the Montana Library Association, the Montana Farmer's Union, and the Montana Democratic Party. Besides an interest in history, Mrs. Floerchinger was a poet and an artist. Mrs. Floerchinger died in Choteau, Montana, on May 8, 1996.

From the guide to the Dorothy Floerchinger Papers, 1883-1991, (Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)