Nina Jean Dalin, formerly of Helena, Montana, passed away September 10, 2020 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she has resided for the past 63 years. She was preceded in death by her parents, John David Blacker and Nora Marie (Kieron) Blacker; four siblings, John Dean Blacker, Mary Margaret Williams, Katherine Helen Heaney, and David Lewis Blacker; one son, Randy Carter Dalin; and one granddaughter, Leanne Michelle Lucero.
Nina was born in Oakland, California on March 11, 1929. By October 1935, the family had moved back to Helena when the family’s brick home on 7th Avenue was destroyed in an earthquake. The entire family, as well as Nina’s grandmother and two aunts, moved in with Tom and Babe Hauser on Floweree. By late 1936, the family moved into the house built by Nina’s father located at the corner of 7th and Davis. Sadly, tragedy struck again only a few months later when Nina’s mother Nora died in May of 1937.
Nina began working as a long distance operator for “Ma Bell” in about 1945 when she was 16 years old. While working the night shift several years later, she met Cid (“Buddy”) Dalin who drove her home in his cab every night. The couple soon married, then moved to Great Falls for a short while, eventually moving to Albuquerque in 1956, where Nina continued working for Ma Bell for another 46 years, retiring in December of 1990.
While still living in Helena, Nina was on the switchboard the night of the Mann Gulch Fire in August 1949, and also remembers putting through a few long distance phone calls for Gary Cooper when he visited Helena in 1949. In Albuquerque, she was one of the first 911 operators and because of her training, was able to save the life of a child after instructing the child’s mother, over the phone, on how to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Nina received a commendation and write-up in the local paper.
Although she lived most of her 91 years in New Mexico, Nina’s heart was always in Montana (or “God’s Country”, as she called it). She travelled there to visit family and friends nearly every summer, where many happy memories were made on the deck of her sister Katherine’s house, located near downtown on Clarke Street.
Nina’s lifetime hobby was genealogy and she was always ready to share her genealogy “books” which contained years of research on her Montana ancestors. Her paternal grandfather David Lyman Blacker became a successful miner in the Radersburg area, having arrived in Virginia City in the summer of 1864. He went on to achieve success in stock raising, eventually moving the family to Helena in 1883. Her paternal grandmother Ada Cordelia Buchenau was born in 1853 in Kansas and came to the Montana Territory in 1871 as a young bride of 18. Nina’s maternal grandparents, Joseph Kieron of County Monaghan, Ireland, and Catherine Myers of County Galway, Ireland, met and married in Butte in 1899.
Nina and her sister Katherine shared a love of genealogy, and the two were known as the family storytellers.
She is survived by two daughters, Lark Marie (Dalin) Robart and Tracey Ann Dalin; two grandchildren, Jacob Dalin Hertz and Lindsay Dalin Hertz; six great grandchildren, including Kara Jane Hertz, Kate Marie Hertz, Jacob Carter Blanton and Wesley James Blanton; numerous nieces and nephews; and many dear friends . . . all of whom remember her fondly, and who will speak her name and tell her stories for generations to come.
The family plans to hold a graveside service in the summer of 2021 at Forestvale Cemetery near where her parents are buried. Details will be shared with family and friends once final arrangements have been made.
© 2020 Copyright by Lark M. Dalin Robart. All rights reserved.
