Lila Kalvoda

Lila Lee (Lowman) Kalvoda died April 1, 2022, at Mandan, ND, at home, where she wanted to be. Home was comforting to her and she died in the home that she and her husband, Johnny, built and moved into in 1975.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 AM on Wednesday, April 6, 2022, at Christ the King Catholic Church, Mandan, ND with Rev. Fred Harvey as celebrant. Burial will be at Mandan Union Cemetery.

Visitation will be held Tuesday, April 5, 2022, from 5:00-7:00 PM at Weigel Funeral Home, Mandan, with a Rosary/Parish Vigil at 7:00 PM. Visitation will continue at the church one hour prior to the service on Wednesday.

Lila was born in Beach, ND, at Johnstone Memorial Hospital on September 9, 1941, to Harold and Anna (Metzger) Lowman. She was the oldest of four children, soon to be followed by Jim, Chuck, and Bill. She grew up on a ranch in the Bandlands northeast of Sentinel Butte and often rode to school on a horse. For eight years, Lila attended a one-room schoolhouse in the    country named Westerheim grade school. She attended Sentinel Butte High School and was class valedictorian when she graduated. She earned room and board while attending high school by taking care of little kids for different families. While in school, she was active in band (when it was offered), served as editor for the school newspaper, worked on the yearbook, and was active in school plays. She was also active in 4-H and did well on achievement days at the Golden Valley County Fair. Almost every summer, she spent a couple of weeks with her grandma, Marty Metzger, in Belfield, ND.

Lila attended St. Alexius School of Nursing in Bismarck, ND and graduated in 1962, with the last of the three year classes. She was very close with her nursing classmates and they kept in contact for the remainder of her life, regularly attending reunions every couple of years. She worked in many areas of nursing, including psychiatric nursing, working at St. Alexius Hospital in Bismarck and Mandan Hospital, teaching health careers classes at Mandan High School, working as the Director of Nursing at the Mandan Villa nursing home, and later working in       rehabilitation and retiring from Sanford Medical Center in Bismarck. She was a nurse for 44 years.

Lila met her future husband, Johnny, while she was in nurses training and they married on June 26, 1963. They raised four children and they were married for 42 years until Johnny’s death in 2005. After Johnny’s death, Lila began fulfilling her dream of travel, and she has visited all of the US states, Canada, Mexico, most of the countries of Europe including Iceland, and other faraway places such as Egypt, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand. She loved family reunions and helped in any way she could. She loved being a grandma, and would drop everything she was doing to help a grandchild whenever it was needed. She loved attending all of their activities including musical performances, plays, and sporting events. If they were involved in something, she was going to be there if at all possible. She had a very strong faith and that helped her through the difficult journey of the past two and a half years as she bravely fought the cancer that eventually took her from us. Lila loved gameshows and she was a contestant on Family Feud, and she thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. Lila was also active with Homemakers and Catholic Daughters.

She is survived by her children, Charlie, of Mandan, ND, Andy (Anja), of Moorhead, MN, Theresa (Mike) Porter, of Bismarck, ND, and  Mike (Justin) of Sunnyvale, CA; 10 grandchildren, Ethan and Jayden Porter, and Jacob, Jonathon, Jordan, Joseph, Jillian, Jeffrey, Jesse, and Janet Kalvoda; brothers, Jim Lowman, of Fairfield, ND, Chuck (Marlene) Lowman, of Sydney, MT, and Bill (JoAnn) Lowman, of  Sentinel Butte, ND; as well as many nephews, nieces, and cousins.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Harold and Anna Lowman, and her husband, Johnny.