18 Dec 1927
Mrs. George Ballentine of Winston died at 10:30 Sunday morning at her home in the little mining camp, as a result of a four days’ illness with influenza and heart trouble. For many years Mr. and Mrs. Ballentine have run a boarding house at Winston where hundreds of miners during this period have made their home. She came there as a young woman some 30 years ago and was about 65 years of age when she passed away. Besides her husband she leaves a daughter, Mrs. Fred Slavens of Winston and three grandchildren, Mildred, Helen and Marie Slaven. She also has a brother, George Boyer of Ironton, Ohio and a sister in Cincinnati. The Funeral will be held at 2 o’clock Tuesday afternoon from the little church in Winston in which she had been an active worker many years. The pallbearers will be Ed Wishon, Bob Whyte, Frank Lenahan, Con Sweney, Jr, Joe Gravill, Jess Carpenter, Henry Gulker and Jack Walker. Word of Mrs. Ballentine’s death was brought to Helena by Frank Donaldson, who went to Winston Sunday morning to see men working at one of his mines. As he stepped off the train he was told of Mrs. Ballentine passing away an hour before. “I got two shocks in a little less than an hour,” said Mr. Donaldson on his return to Helena Sunday evening. “As I was leaving for the train the telephone rang and I was informed of the death of County Treasurer Smith, whom I had known for a good many years. Then when I reached Winston the first thing was the death of Mrs. Ballentine, a woman whom I had known for many years and with whose husband I had been associated since he lived in Winston. Mrs. Ballentine was the friend of hundreds of miners, and always interested in charitable work. She was a great worker, a great mother and a great wife. All the miners loved her and her husband, ‘Old George,’ as they fondly called him.”