Laulette Irvin Hansen was polite and proper, grew up in an affluent Ohio family with servants, and attended some of the most renowned academic institutions in the country.
Yet, somehow, Hansen wound up in Eastern Montana for most of her life, working for the county welfare office and living on a ranch near Fort Benton.
“Even though she came from a privileged background and was well educated, somehow to her, that felt right,” said granddaughter Laulette Alexandra Edwards. “There was a war going on. She couldn’t think of a better thing to be doing than growing food. That was the best kind of contribution she could make at that time.”
Hansen was the daughter of Dayton, Ohio, mayor James Irvin.
The education she received may have been unusual for the time, but not among women of her social circle.
She earned a master’s degree in public law and history from Columbia University. She was working toward a doctoral degree in political science at the University of Chicago when she met her husband, Ermal Hansen, who was from Montana.
The couple moved to the family ranch near Fort Benton, and raised one daughter, Laulette L. Hansen.
The family has seven generations of the name “Laulette.” The firstborn daughter is always bequeathed with that name, said Hansen’s 65-year-old daughter, a writer who lives in Missoula.
“They’re like family jewels,” she said. “You can’t throw them away. At the same time, it’s hard to wear them.”
Hansen’s mother was a proper woman. She went to church regularly, participated in civic groups, dressed conservatively, and was not touchy-feely.
People remember her dry sense of humor, interest in national politics and love of good Scotch.
Edwards lived with her grandmother in Great Falls for a year while she finished up high school. The two would watch the nightly news together and talk politics.
“She was not the sort of person to get worked up,” Edwards said. “She took an interest of what was going on at the national scene.”
One afternoon, Edwards accompanied her grandmother to brunch with some of the other ladies from church. The topic turned to the church’s philosophy towards gays and lesbians. Edwards said her grandmother welcomed all people to the church and priesthood and thought it ridiculous to think otherwise.
“Given her age, that was sort of a pleasant surprise to me,” Edwards said. “She didn’t shy away from confrontation, but she wasn’t into making a fuss. She hated fuss.”
But Hansen loved animals. For as proper as Hansen was, and for as much as she encouraged good table manners, she would feed her dogs from the table, Edwards said, laughing.
In her spare time, she took to the skies. At one time, she served as the state chairman of the Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots, and flew until she retired.
Hansen worked as the county welfare administrator in Hill, Liberty and Cascade counties, but her most rewarding, but trying, times involved helping the Indians on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, said her daughter.
One day, a woman came into Hansen’s office. The county was looking for help in the office, but the woman, an Indian, said, “You’d never hire one of us,” her daughter recalled. Hansen handed her the application and later hired her, because she was the most qualified.
Hansen’s daughter always remembers her saying, “If you are in a position of power … don’t forget the people who come into your office deserve to be treated with respect just as anyone else.”
Even though Hansen was from the east coast, she fit well in Montana because “she took people how they were. She wasn’t the life of the party, but she had a strong sense of community,” said her daughter.
Recently, Hansen’s ashes traveled to Woodland Cemetery in Ohio.
Founded in 1841, Woodland is one of the five oldest rural garden cemeteries in the nation. There, with the rest of her deceased relatives, her ashes will be buried on Jan. 17 n her birthday.
“I thought that would be a nice day to do it,” her daughter said. “That’s an easy day for the family to remember.”
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at Chelsi.Moy@Missoulian.com.
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