Louise Line

22 October 1919 – 25 June 2014

Biography

Written by Elizabeth Grout Roberts

Louise Line Grout was born October 22, 1919 in Billings, Montana and grew up in nearby Columbus.  When she was 9 her family moved to Missoula where her father became a member of the faculty and Dean of the School of Business Administration at the University of Montana.  Initially the family lived near the university, then up the Rattlesnake, finally settling just south of downtown on land her parents called The Fellfoot, known today as the Line Ranch.  

As a teenager and the oldest of 4, Louise helped with her family’s summer dude ranch camp.  By sixteen she led a pack train through Missoula and camped up the Rattlesnake solo in preparation for campers who arrived the next day.  Those summer camps made it possible for Louise to attend music school in Chicago and Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. There she met her future husband Milton Grout and they were married September 7, 1940.

Louise and Milton lived in New England until the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1942 when Milton enlisted in the US Navy and was commissioned as a naval officer in London.  With mounting fears that the East and West coasts might be bombed, Louise left college and returned to Missoula.  There she worked in cartography for the war effort and graduated from the University of Montana in Psychology.

Reunited in the summer of 1944, Louise and Milton moved to San Francisco until Milton’s discharge from the Navy in the fall of 1945. They moved to Seattle, and ultimately Bellevue, Washington where they raised four children. The family enjoyed a beach cabin on Puget Sound and many camping trips and picnics throughout the northwest.  Louise was proud to be a homemaker and also participated in Camp Fire Girls leadership, Seattle Weaver’s Guild, where she won numerous awards, and the Bellevue Arts & Crafts fair.  

As her children began to leave home Louise studied transpersonal psychology with Ira Progoff eventually teaching at Bellevue Community College for several years where her courses became accredited.  She built SkySong, a retreat center in Issaquah, Washington where she conducted workshops in personal growth and sponsored other presenters.

In 1992 Louise was drawn to her native roots, returning to Montana and settling in Corvallis in the Bitterroot Valley where she built a straw bale house and directed the development of her productive organic garden.  Louise enjoyed starting heirloom seeds in the spring and preserved her harvest for food she prepared year round. She remained independent, living alone with supportive family and friends close by.

Timeline

Billings, Montana

October 22, 1919 – Birth

Columbus, Montana

1919 – living in the Montgomery Ward house kit given to her parents as a wedding present from Louise Chapman’s parents

• located adjacent to Robert Line’s father’s surgery

Missoula, Montana

1929 – move to Missoula where her father is hired as a professor at UofM

1929 – living on Beckwith Street “in the Kelly house”

1930 – living up the Rattlesnake on Elfin Way “in the Jones house”

1933 – moved to the Fellfoot ranch, known today as the Line Ranch, where the family still live today 2026

1937 – she and her family take a tour across the US in their homemade trailer

1938 – first Fellfoot Ranch Camp

South Hadley, Massachusetts

1938 – September enrolled at Mt Holyoke College

1940 – wedding to Milton Lory Grout at the Fellfoot

1941 – December 07, 1941 – Pearl Harbor

Missoula, Montana

1942 – July 1 Milton stationed in London for the next two years

• Due to fears of possible east coast bombing during WWII she returns to Missoula living at the Fellfoot and finishes her degree at the University of Montana

1943 – BA in psychology-philosophy at University of Montana

• Working as office assistant in the Geography Department

1944 – clerical work for the Army pre-flight training program

San Francisco, California

1944 – Milton returns from London in July and is stationed in San Francisco

• Louise joins him in San Francisco

• They live at 348 Serrano Drive, San Francisco 12, California

Seattle, Washington

1945 – October 03 Milton is discharged from the Navy

• They move to Capitol Hill in Seattle

• 1246 16th Street, Seattle, Washington

1946 – May 18 Judith Grout is born

1949 – December 13 Elizabeth Grout is born

Bellevue, Washington

1950 – move to Norwood Village, one of the first subdivisions in the US

• 2518 123rd SE, Bellevue, King County, Washington

1956 – May 25 Robert Milton Grout is born

1959 – April 10 William Campbell Grout is born

Issaquah, Washington

Corvallis, Montana

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