Bernadette Laughlin, 74, of Bozeman, died peacefully on July 22, 2026, at her home on West Olive Street, the same house she bought in 1997 for what she always described as “a perfectly reasonable amount of money” and which the county now assesses at a figure that made her laugh until she cried.

Born Bernadette O’Malley on March 14, 1952, in Butte, she arrived in the valley for a summer season at Bridger Bowl and stayed for the next twenty-nine winters. She worked the bulk aisle at the Community Food Co-op for two decades, where she memorized the bulk codes for nutritional yeast and steel-cut oats and could steer any tourist toward the local honey without breaking stride.

Bernadette watched the empty lot across the street become a duplex, then a fourplex, then a mixed-use building with a cold-pressed juice bar on the ground floor. She attended every planning meeting for the North 7th corridor and spoke at exactly three of them, each time reminding the commission that she remembered when you could park a horse trailer on Main Street.

Her daughter, Siobhan, lives in Belgrade with her family and a commute that stretches longer each year. Her son, Finn, stayed in Bozeman and works two jobs to keep the rent paid on a basement apartment three blocks from his childhood bedroom.

A celebration of life will be held at Hawthorne Funeral Home on August 10 at 2:00 p.m., potluck encouraged, BYO camp chair.