03/23/2026
Benita "Jo" Hanson
Beinta A. Hanson slipped from her earthly bonds on March 23, 2026, in Polson MT.
She is survived by fourteen nieces and nephews and their families and a circle of special friends with whom she shared her later years across the table or on road trips - a special family, just not blood.
Benita, who was nicknamed Jo almost at birth, was born in Polson, MT, on October 26, 1947, and was immediately adopted by her parents, Jesse ‘Butch” and Clara McNeeley. They lived in Polson and Seeley Lake until 1952 when they moved to Paradise Northern Pacific Tie Plant where Butch was employed. Jo attended Paradise Grade School and Plains High School and graduated in 1965. She attended MSU, Bozeman, and graduated with a BA degree in German and a teaching minor in history in 1969. For three years she taught some of Plains High School’s best students.
In 1971, she met Roy Hanson, the love of her life, who had come to teach Math in Plains. They married June 3, 1972, at Cascade Park, beginning a wonderful life together lasting over 38 years before being cut short by cancer.
While Roy received his master’s degree, Jo received a library science endorsement from Western Montana College. After a year at Roberts, MT, they returned to Plains where Jo worked in a fabric store where she developed a love of working with fabric.
When the elementary school was built, she was hired to consolidate the elementary library and later was hired to work part-time in the school’s business office. After retirement of her friend and mentor, she became the school district Clerk/Business Manager in 1976. When personal computers became available, she brought the school accounting into the ‘computer age’. She would hold that position until retirement in 2000. But she was always available to teach German whenever a foreign language teacher was not on staff.
After retirement, she and Roy traveled to the southwest and along the Pacific Coast, always returning to their home base, which they had built in the shadow of a cliff east of Plains. Retirement as a single for her was spent sewing and quilting, square dancing, and spoiling her two cats. In 2010, she wrote Milepost Zero, the story of the development of the Paradise Valley and the part the Northern Pacific Railroad played in the development of the Clark Fork River Valley. Research and the time spent talking with people about the project brought a real joy to her life.
In 2013, Jo rejoined the United Methodist Congregation in Paradise where she had been baptized in March 1956 and enjoyed and was blessed by her ‘church family’ and their activities.
With the help and support of friends and family, she was able to live her final years in her beloved community.
Graveside services will be held at the Plains Cemetery on April 30, 2026, at 3:00 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, Jo requested that donations be made to: Cancer Network of Sanders County, Box 1311, Plains, MT 59859, to help friends and neighbors in their fights against cancer.
Arrangements entrusted to Sunset Hills Funeral Homes & Crematory, Plains MT
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