Marianne Elise Fisher, 86,  died of cancer Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006, at her home in Billings, Montana.   Marianne was born on June 17, 1920, to John Alden Fritchey and Anna (Bowers) Fritchey at their home in Claremont, Ill.

Her interest in medicine carried her to nursing school, where she earned her registered nurse's certificate two years out of high school in 1940.

After a few years in south Texas, she returned home and married Dr. H. Noland Fisher, an ophthalmologist, in Olney, Ill., on July 4, 1948. Drawn by Dr. Fisher's love for the West and for the outdoors, the family quickly moved to Billings, where Marianne raised her four children and lived for 58 years.

In her professional life, Marianne worked part-time as a private nurse as she raised her oldest children. She returned to work full-time at Deaconess Billings Clinic, then known as Deaconess Hospital, in the early 1970s.

She worked with the Big Sky Hospice for several years after her retirement from the hospital.

She is survived by her daughter, Peggy Aagenes-Janzer and husband Red Janzer of Kalispell; and by her sons, Joseph Fisher of Casper, Wyo., Richard Fisher and wife Donna Fisher of Casper, and David Fisher and wife Joan Fisher of Bend, Ore.

She is also survived by eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and by her youngest brother, Gerald David Fritchey and his wife Linda of Ferguson, Mo.

She was preceded in death by her husband, in 1973; by her oldest sister, Josephine Williams, also a longtime Billings resident; and by another brother, Bud Fritchey of Franklin, Ky.

Published in the Billings Gazette ~ October 15, 2006