Emily Fisher-Lamontagne, 1917-2013

Tax accountant started college, career as retiree

Fisher-Lamontagne

LUNA PIER, Mich. — Emily Fisher-Lamontagne, an activist in her longtime Erie Township hometown and a retired school bus driver who went on to college and a 20-year career as an accountant, died Tuesday in Fountain View of Monroe nursing home. She was 95.

She did not recover after surgery to deal with a staph infection acquired during an earlier procedure, her daughter Barbara Raymond said.

Mrs. Fisher-Lamontagne was a certified public accountant and continued to oversee the books and prepare tax returns for business clients and handle individual returns until about five years ago.

At the start, she ran Fisher’s Accounting from her home in Luna Pier.

Later, as she and her late first husband, Merideth Fisher, moved away to a summer home near Baldwin, Mich., and a winter place in Charlotte Harbor, Fla., she kept her Luna Pier clients and picked up business in her new locations.

“People knew when they came to her for taxes, she was trustworthy,” grandson Bob Fisher said.

Loyalty to clients kept her going, her daughter said.

“She didn’t want to let people down,” her daughter said.

Mrs. Fisher-Lamontagne grew up in the Allen Cove area of Luna Pier and enlisted in community causes from bringing a U.S. post office to the area to uniting school districts to create what is now the Mason Consolidated district to pushing for the incorporation of Luna Pier.

“She liked to get things done, and when she saw something that needed to be done, it was a challenge to her,” her daughter said.

In 1973, then-Mayor Clyde Evans appointed her to city council.

Mrs. Fisher-Lamontagne worked for more than a decade as a school bus driver for the Mason Consolidated district.

She was born Nov. 23, 1917, in Toledo, to Lois and Daniel Bomia. She left school after eighth grade.

During World War II, she worked at Monroe Auto Equipment, which created military ammunition.

She later worked for a tomato cannery in Tecumseh, Mich., and a greenhouse in Monroe.

In retirement, she took classes to receive her high school equivalency diploma.

She enrolled in Monroe County Community College and was a full-time student as she worked toward an associate’s degree. She even sang in the college choir.

“They all treated her like a grandparent or a mother,” her daughter said. “They all looked up to her and gave her respect.”

She was a former member of Luna Pier Chapel, where she taught Sunday school; Bitely, Mich., Community Church, and Tri-City Baptist Church in Florida. She attended Bedford Alliance Church in Temperance.

She and her first husband, Merideth Fisher, married Oct. 26, 1935. He died Jan. 23, 1992.

She married Marcel Lamontagne in 1995, and he died later that decade, her daughter said.

Surviving are her daughters, Barbara Raymond and Linda Duvall; sister, Florence Rose; 27 grandchildren; 42 great grandchildren; 11 great great grandchildren, and two great great great grandchildren.

“She had something special to say about every one of them,” her daughter said. “At night when she would lay in her bed and say her prayers, she would mention every one of those kids by name.”

Visitation will be from 4-8 p.m. today in Urbanski’s Bedford Funeral Chapel, Temperance, where services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.