Lois Ann Fitzpatrick

With great sorrow and gratitude for a life well lived, the Fitzpatrick, Wandrych, Davis, O’Donnell, and Sullivan families announce the passing of our kind, caring, and unimaginably generous wife, mother, nana, sister, aunt, and friend, Lois Ann Fitzpatrick. Lois was the youngest of three children born to Thomas and Dorothy (Nealy) Sullivan of Yonkers, New York, on March 27, 1952, and she died in Helena, Montana, on March 10, 2023.

Always curious and full of life, Lois spent much of her youth researching the world around her. She was studious throughout her school career attending Catholic schools, although sometimes her curiosity would get her in trouble with the school nuns. Throughout her college years, Lois clerked for the Yonkers Public Library, and after she graduated from MercyCollege, she completed her master’s degree in library sciencefrom Pratt Institute and remained for a short time in the Yonkers library system as a professional librarian. Fiercely independent and intent on sharing the treasure of reading to youth who did not have access to books, Lois served on a mini-bookmobile that drove to Yonkers inner-city neighborhoods where she read to the neighborhood children, some of whom had never had a book read to them before. She was also a master story-teller. Shemade it her mission to share her passion for reading with youth, regardless of their life circumstances. 

In 1970, Lois went on a blind date with her future husband and love of her life, William (Bill) Fitzpatrick. The two were married in 1973 and shared their interest in adventure and travel. In 1975, the couple left New York to go camping in Montana, and they loved Helena so much, they decided to call it home in 1976. Together they raised two daughters, Jennifer and Amy. Bill and Lois provided their daughters with all the love, comfort, hospitality, humor and stability a family could ask for. 

Lois continued to feed her passion for teaching and learning by becoming the Director of the Corette Library at Carroll College and an adjunct professor in children’s literature. In 1993, shewas diagnosed with breast cancer. Even in the face of her own health scare, she remained a steadfast friend, mother, wife, and confidante to everyone she knew. Her fight with cancer, as a mother of two young girls, sparked a fight in Lois, and she became deeply involved in cancer advocacy, research, and education. Lois always stood up for those not able to do so for themselves, especially those suffering from cancer. Cancer research and access to treatment were two of her passions, and so Lois dedicated her focus and tenacity to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, where she lobbied nationally to make cancer research and treatment a priority with our lawmakers. 

Another passion was early childhood education, and in 2022, Lois was an elected to the School Board for the Helena School District, one of her greatest honors. Unfortunately, just at this time, she learned her cancer returned, stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. In true fashion, Lois decided she was again going to fight, and while undergoing treatment, she continued to serve on the school board, attending meetings on Zoom. During one of her hospital admissions, she was honored with the MTCC Lupine Cancer Advocate of the Year award. Sadly, during her cancer treatment, she contracted Covid, resulting in her last days spent in the hospital with her loving husband by her side. On March 10, 2023, the 53rd anniversary of her father’s death, Lois was able to finally rest.

Besides her devoted daughters, Jennifer Fitzpatrick and Amy Wandrych, and her two caring sons-in-law, Rob Davis and Jake Wandrych, Lois leaves behind the grandchildren she always loved to talk about: Brody Wandrych, Kolby Greany, Brinley Wandrych, Harlow Wandrych, and Olin Davis. She is also survived by her sister, Mary Ann O’Donnell, and brother-in-law, Sean O’Donnell, whom she always thought of as her second father, both of New York, and her brother, Ed Sullivan, and sister-in-law, Anne Sullivan, both of Vermont. She will be greatly missed by countless friends, colleagues, and cancer advocates throughout the country. She is mourned by her beloved dog, Willow. 

And Lois leaves behind the most life-changing partner, caretaker, confidant and friend—her husband, William Fitzpatrick. 

No services have been scheduled at this time.