Beverly Dolores Pizzini

Beverly Dolores Pizzini, “Mom,” passed away peacefully on January 4, 2026, at Edgewood Assisted Living in Helena. Montana. She was born in Butte, Montana, the only child of Emma (Cheff) LaPalm and Joseph Salust “Sal” LaPalm, on May 27, 1939. She lived in California and New York during some of her childhood but later returned to Butte and graduated from Butte High School in 1957. She received her elementary teaching degree from Montana State University.

On December 31, 1960, Mom married Donald Eugene Pizzini “Dad” at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Black Eagle (Great Falls), Montana. They spent their first two years of marriage in Fort Knox, Kentucky, where Dad served in the Army and their first daughter, Dawn, was born in 1962. After returning to Montana, another daughter, Denise, was born in 1964 and two sons followed, Eugene “Gino” in 1966 and Gregory “Greg” in 1967. They raised their family in Great Falls where Dad served as Public Health Officer of Cascade County and administrator of the Cascade County Convalescent Nursing Home for many years while Mom taught elementary school at St. Joseph’s Catholic School.

In 1989, Mom and Dad moved to Helena where Dad served as Director of the Montana Department of Health and Environmental Sciences and then as Superfund Director for the Montana office of the Federal EPA. Mom and Dad always joked that they left Great Falls to get away from us kids only to have us all eventually follow them to Helena. Mom and Dad’s beloved home on Saddle Mountain was our gathering place as we built homes and families of our own. Even after Dad passed away much too soon, in 1994, Mom remained the center of us.

Mom was a great mother, but she was really born to be a grandmother. For the first twelve years of her grandmotherhood, she had only one co-adventurer. Even after Dad died, she and Dylan traveled from California to Florida together and many places in between. Later, she would also have Cooper, Mari, and Emily to adventure with – parents were sometimes included.

Mom was a woman of great spiritual faith. She converted to Catholicism to marry Dad and in doing so found the two great guiding loves of her life. She was at peace at the time of her death, as she was in her life, surrounded by the love of her God and of her family.

Mom is survived by her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren: Dawn Pizzini and her husband, Mark Morgan of Helena; grandchildren, Daniel Morgan, Marissa Morgan Halsten (Brendan); and great-grandchildren, Haven, Mila, and Honor; Denise Pizzini of Helena; grandchild, Dylan Pizzini (Molly); and great-grandchild, Juniper; grandchild, Megan Allen Coy (Isaac); and great-grandchildren, Henry and Lily; grandchild, Sean Allen; and great-grandchild Gage; Gino Pizzini and his wife, Kendra of Helena; grandchild, Cooper Pizzini (Eliza); and great-grandchild, Cooke; grandchild, Emily Pizzini; Gregory Pizzini and his wife, Lynne of Helena and Arizona; and grandchild, Marianna Pizzini Mankle (James).

There will be a short graveside service at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Great Falls at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 8, 2026. The family will hold a celebration of Mom’s life this summer when out-of-state family can attend and weather will more easily permit travel between Helena and Great Falls.

We wish to specially thank all of those who have loved and cared for our Mom during the last years, months, weeks, and days of her life at Edgewood Assisted Living in Helena and Headwaters Palliative Care and Hospice. There are heroes in this world, and their superpowers are mercy and compassion. Thank you all for being there.