On the evening of May 2, 2026, Lana Hill passed away peacefully, among family and friends.\u00a0 She was 78 years old.\u00a0 She was recovering at home after a recent medical event.<\/p>\n
Lana Marlene Belgarde was born June 10, 1947, to Lilly and Eugene Belgarde.\u00a0 Her brother Barry was born a year later but passed away as an infant.\u00a0 Lilly and Gene would later divorce and Lilly would move to Helena with Lana.<\/p>\n
Lana graduated from St. Aloysius Catholic High School in 1965.\u00a0 It would later be purchased by the Helena School District and become Capital High School.<\/p>\n
Lana held jobs as a \u201cCandy Striper\u201d at the old St. John\u2019s Hospital and a key punch operator at the Department of Transportation.\u00a0 That\u2019s where she met James C. Hill.\u00a0 They were married July 1, 1967.\u00a0 Their first home together was in Rimini.\u00a0 They later moved to the south end of Kerr Drive.<\/p>\n
They were blessed with a daughter in 1971.\u00a0 Her name is Chantal.\u00a0 They moved to the north end of Kerr Drive when Nicholas came along, 2 years later.\u00a0 For 10 years, they were a family of 4.\u00a0 Then in 1983, Andrea arrived and completed the family.<\/p>\n
In 1991, Chantal married Andrew and then in 1998, Lana welcomed her first grandchild – Lindsay.\u00a0 Then in 2000, AJ was born.\u00a0 They became Tweeter Bug and Turkey Butt and spent countless hours circling the house in a Pooh Cart.<\/p>\n
In 1997, she traveled with her mother, Grant and Andrea to Atlanta to see the Braves.\u00a0 As part of their adventure, they went to the World of Coca Cola museum – which she really enjoyed.\u00a0 She liked the fountains that remained after the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Lana dabbled in crafts throughout the years – including sewing, plastic canvas and sequined calendars.\u00a0 She also enjoyed baking, collecting books and ANYTHING Winnie the Pooh.\u00a0 She would occasionally get a Strawberry cream frappuccino from Starbucks and Sophie would get a pup cup.<\/p>\n
She loved animals.\u00a0 When they first started out, Lana and Jim had 3 horses.\u00a0 Later they bred dogs.\u00a0 She has had poodles, cocker spaniels, a yorkie and labs over the years.<\/p>\n
Lana is preceded in death by her parents, Gene and Lilly; stepfather, Grant DeLude and her husband Jim.\u00a0 She is survived by her daughter Chantal (Ryan), son Nick (Alice), daughter Andrea (Jeff), grandkids Lindsay and AJ, and her chocolate lab Sophie and 4 grand doggies and 2 grand kitties.<\/p>\n
Cremation has taken place.\u00a0 A Celebration of Lana’s Life will be held at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, May 26, 2026 at Anderson Stevenson Wilke & Retz Funeral Home followed by a reception in the social hall of the funeral home.<\/p>\n
The family would like to recognize the compassionate people at Angel Care.\u00a0 They were kind, helpful and patient with mom during the last 2 months.<\/p>\n
In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to Lewis and Clark Humane Society or to a charity of the donor\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n","photo":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Lana-Hill_0001.jpg","youtube_video_url":"","service_status":"public","event_title1":"Celebration of Her Life","event_date1":"2026-05-26","start_time1":"11:00am","end_time1":"","location1":"Anderson Stevenson Wilke & Retz Funeral Home","address1":"3750 N Montana Ave.","city1":"Helena","state1":"Montana","zipcode1":"59602","event_title2":"Reception","event_date2":"2026-05-26","start_time2":"Following the service","end_time2":"","location2":"Social Hall of Anderson Stevenson Wilke","address2":"3750 N Montana Ave.","city2":"Helena","state2":"Montana","zipcode2":"59602","event_title3":"","event_date3":"","start_time3":"","end_time3":"","location3":"","address3":"","city3":"","state3":"","zipcode3":"","event_title4":"","event_date4":"","start_time4":"","end_time4":"","location4":"","address4":"","city4":"","state4":"","zipcode4":"","event_title5":"","event_date5":"","start_time5":"","end_time5":"","location5":"","address5":"","city5":"","state5":"","zipcode5":"","event_title6":"","event_date":"","start_time6":"","end_time6":"","location6":"","address6":"","city6":"","state6":"","zipcode6":"","event_title7":"","event_date7":"","start_time7":"","end_time7":"","location7":"","address7":"","city7":"","state7":"","zipcode7":"","event_title8":"","event_date8":"","start_time8":"","end_time8":"","location8":"","address8":"","city8":"","state8":"","zipcode8":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case\/33218","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=33218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}