John Joseph Kanta passed away December 13, 2011.<\/p>\n
He was born January 26, 1926 to Frank and Susan (Rusnek) Kanta in Sumatra, Montana. He was raised in the Catholic religion with nine other siblings and was a faithful member of St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Community. <\/p>\n
In December of 1944, John enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Kyoto, Japan. He was honorably discharged in November of 1946. <\/p>\n
He returned home to Montana and was united in marriage to Marion Schulenberg at Forsyth, MT on November 21, 1947. Their union lasted 52 years. John began a lifelong career in construction including heavy equipment operator and mechanic. John never retired and continued working for Gruber Excavating through the summer of 2011. <\/p>\n
In his early years, he enjoyed hunting, fishing, and hard work . . . but his real passion was his family. John was most happy in the presence of his family, especially his grandchildren, and friends, recalling old times and sharing a drink. He was also a big Griz football fan. <\/p>\n
John is survived by his five daughters, Kathy Olson, Gloria Kanta, Carla Kaufman, Ellen Kanta, and Johnna Kanta; three sons, David Kanta, Patrick Kanta and Cory Kanta; 11 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; brothers, Gesa Kanta of Forsyth, Paul Kanta of Forsyth, and Joe Kanta of Melstone, MT; sisters, Mary Perkins of St. Louis, MO., Ann Kanta of Billings and Terry Wilson of Melstone, MT.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Marion; his parents; sister, Ethel, and brothers, Frank Jr. and Rudy. <\/p>\n
Memorials are suggested to the Cancer Treatment Center c\/o St. Peter\u2019s Hospital, 2475 Broadway, Helena, MT 59601. <\/p>\n
Visitation for family and friends will be from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Friday, December 16th at Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home, 3750 North Montana Avenue. A Vigil service will be 5:00 p.m. Friday at Saint Mary Catholic Community. Funeral Mass will be 10:00 a.m. Saturday, December 17th at Saint Mary Catholic Community. Rite of Committal will follow at Resurrection Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting: www.aswfuneralhome.com<\/p>\n","photo":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/535332_profile_pic.png","youtube_video_url":"","family_email":"","family_first_name":"","family_last_name":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/case"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}