Name to a Face: Shelly Heppler

Shelly Heppler was born in Billings, Montana into a loving family. She lived in Lockwood, just outside of Billings, while going to elementary school. She completed high school at Helena Helena, after relocating when her mother took a job with the State.

She worked during high school at Sambo's Restaurant, where she learned the truest form of customer service and waitress etiquette. A year after she graduated from high school, Shelly went to Western Montana College in Dillon, where she was able to take her General Education courses. While she was in Dillon, she had various jobs such as at the County Seat, as a paraoptometric, and as an office manager at RJ English optometrist practice. She worked for Doctor English for over ten years and to this day knows quite a bit more about glasses than the average person.

Shelly married the love of her life and best friend in the whole world, Sam Heppler, in 1986. Shortly after, they moved back to Billings and purchased her great-grandmother's home, which was conveniently located near her mother, grandmother and aunt. After a stint at another optometrist office, she decided to go into the military for a twenty-year career. Shelly enlisted in the US Army as a 93-C Air Traffic Controller at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Unfortunately, her military career was cut short with an early discharge due to an injury.

Upon her return to Billings, Shelly completed a Health Administration Degree from Eastern College (MSU Billings). She set her eyes to Glendive, where she became the Administrator for the nursing home Eastern Montana Veterans Home.

After a vacation down to Las Vegas, she was offered a position as a director for a non-profit Hospice in Pahrump, Nevada. She had over 120 patients and 60 employees. Due to the onslaught of gangs coming from California and the fact that she and Sam missed Montana, they moved back to Whitehall. She has been working as a Substitute for Whitehall schools, where it has been a pleasure to work with the teachers, kids, as well as all of the staff, and as an Assistant for Gina Ossello at McLeod Realtors.

Shelly is Montana-born and bred, save for the eleven years she lived out of state. She loves to travel as she has been to England and digging deep into her family's genealogy. Her love of history spills over into her love of reading as well.

Shelly enjoys that Whitehall has many lovely people in the community and that it is a small town that is close enough to the big cities that it isn't so isolated. She loves that friends, neighbors, and the community help each other. She enjoys waving back to everyone who waves to her, saying hello even though they might not know each other. Shelly hopes that the Whitehall community will keep supporting the many small businesses in town trying to stay afloat; she is also looking forward to the reopening of the local movie theatre!