David Blaine Wishart was the third of four children of David Wishart, a farmer from the parish of Dunnichen, Angus, and his wife, Jeannie Aiken Blaine. He was born on 8 July 1895 in Pawnee City, Nebraska and moved with his family to Washington Township, Kansas, in the late 1890s.

In 1910 the Wisharts relocated to the Flathead Valley in Montana and homesteaded on the reservation at Big Arm before buying a farm north of Kalispell in the LaSalle area. When old enough David joined his father on the farm, and on 15 February 1918 he enlisted in the Army and served in Vancouver, Washington; however, it is not known in what capacity or for how long.

After the war, David returned to his father’s farm and on 6 June 1929 he married Rose Burkhardt in Kalispell. Three children were born of the union and David continued to farm and ranch until 1959, when he sold the farm and moved to Evergreen. Up until his retirement, David also spent 35 years cutting Christmas trees and was a member of the LaSalle Grange – eventually becoming a master in 1951 – the same year his son James died in a hunting accident. He was also a member of the World War I Barracks, with which he served twenty years as commander and quartermaster, in addition to the American Legion Post 7, as a historian.

David died as result of a heart attack on 6 March 1983 at the Colonial Manor Nursing Home in Whitefish. He left behind his wife, two daughters, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Following a service, at the Risen Christ Church in Kalispell, he was buried in the Conrad Memorial Cemetery and given military graveside rites.

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