Alice Layman, who died last week at 78, was the kind of volunteer any charitable organization loved to have on board.

“She was always serving. She didn’t need the limelight,” said Mary Beth Brotzel, coordinator of the Yellowstone County Council on Aging meal site at First Presbyterian Church.

“She was one of those quiet giants,” said Pam Makara, program director for the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program.

Those were just two of the volunteer programs in which Layman was active. She also worked for many years as a volunteer usher at the Alberta Bair Theater and was a volunteer for the Friends of the Parmly Billings Library, the American Red Cross, Big Brothers Big Sisters and numerous other organizations.

“Her death comes as such a great surprise because she really got around,” Makara said. “She was here, there and everywhere.”

Layman’s pastor at American Lutheran Church, the Rev. Tim Tostengard, described her as “one of the most unassuming people I ever met” and a whirlwind of activity.

She headed up the church’s work on behalf of the Lutheran World Relief Fund, which provided school kits for children in foreign countries, and she also made sure that her fellow parishioners got the recognition they deserved. If anyone from American Lutheran was mentioned in The Gazette, Layman clipped out the piece and posted it on the bulletin board at church.

“She didn’t miss anything,” Tostengard said.

Brotzel said Layman persuaded her husband, Wilbur Layman, to get involved with the First Presbyterian meal site, probably so he’d have something to do every day while she was busy with her own volunteer work.

She was also a regular visitor to the meal site, Brotzel said, and she exhibited her humor and fortitude when she showed up shortly before her death wearing a blue surgical mask. She had taken a bad tumble and badly bruised her face, so she wore a name tag that read: “I don’t have the swine flu, I’m just black and blue.”

Brotzel said Layman was very quiet, “but when you visited with her she left an impression on you. You never forgot her.”

Jennifer Houser, the Alberta Bair Theater’s volunteer coordinator for eight years, said she always referred to Layman as “Saint Alice,” and she called her an “extraordinary example” of a selfless, community-minded volunteer.

“She worked harder than others even behind the scenes with no recognition because she really didn’t need it,” Houser said. “She was just happy to serve.”

In addition to her work with charitable organizations, Layman had a Gazette paper route for more than 25 years, worked as a lunch lady and crosswalk guard at Highland Elementary School and served as a Scout den mother and election official.

Nicki Broch, a former president of Friends of the Library, said Layman was in charge of magazines for the group, collecting, sorting and pricing magazines for the annual book sale.

Some members wanted to give away copies of National Geographic because there were always so many of them, Broch said, but Layman refused to let them go without making some money for the group, though she was willing to donate the magazines to schools.

And as other friends and acquaintances also pointed out, “Alice was a mad person when it came to recycling,” Broch said.

She couldn’t stand to see people throwing aluminum cans away, so she set up some bins on the third floor of the library, where volunteers sort and stack books for the annual sale. When the bins got full, Alice and Wilbur picked them up and took them to the recycling center.

Makara said people like Layman “truly have made an amazing difference. Without volunteer support, Billings just wouldn’t be what it is today.”

A memorial service for Layman is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. at American Lutheran Church, 5 Lewis Ave.