OBITUARIES

Jun 5, 2022

Diana Sigalla, born Sheila Diana Screech, passed away peacefully at the age of 88 on June 5th, 2022, in the Bellevue home where she had lived for 62 years. Diana would laughingly say that she was called Diana rather than Sheila because when she was in trouble as a child she was called Diana, and the name stuck. Diana...

Jun 5, 2022

Hanna Misch French thought the world was better viewed with gratitude and appreciation than with judgment. Born in Stuttgart in 1934, she escaped Nazi Germany for China with her parents in 1936, where her father Peter Misch taught geology in Canton and Kunming. In 1939, with Japan bombing China, Hanna and her mother Susanne Maier-Leibnitz returned to Germany as...

Jun 4, 2022

January 18, 1923 to June 4, 2022

Kenneth Lee Butz was born January 18, 1923, to Alvin and Edna (Briggs) Butz in Oneida Kansas. He was the 6th child and 5th son of 8 children.  He spent his early years in South Dakota, where his family were farmers. During the Depression and Dust Bowl years they moved with several...

May 24, 2022

Why am I here?

I often ask myself

That deep existential question: “Why am I here?”

Then I remember,

I came to the basement

For a jar of pickles—

That’s why I’m here.

Molly Holmes January 15,...

May 19, 2022

James Patrick “Pat” Connors, 77, passed away on May 19th, 2022, while in hospital in Bellevue Washington.

Pat was born in Seattle Washington in 1944 to James Connors and Mary Haas Connors.

In his early years Pat met his friends who he still has today that have held a special place in his heart throughout...

May 17, 2022

Elaine Vivian Smith (Knutson) was born at Heron Lake, Minnesota, on August 8, 1928. On May 17, 2022, she died in Kent, Washington, at age 93, after a long and full life. Loved by her surviving family, she is missed terribly.

One of seven children born to Silas and Stella Knutson on a small farm near Windom,...

May 17, 2022

Michele Mari Kelly, born February 11, 1967;

passed away on May 17, 2022, peacefully at home in Mountlake Terrace, WA. Preceded in death by parents John & Ardath Kelly, and brother Michael Kelly. Survived by son Evan Kelly; his "grandparents"; uncles Don (& Lee) Kelly and Frank Kelly; close friends and family-of-choice. Owner of Pipewench...

May 16, 2022

Elmerante “Boyette” Acacio was born August 2, 1958 in Manila, Philippines to Elmer and Erlinda Acacio. He was the oldest of 10 children. Growing up as a child, Elmerante spent many of his younger years with his grandparents in Vintar, Ilocos Norte where he finished his elementary and high school education. He returned to Manila to attend Jose Rizal...

May 13, 2022

Athalie “Lee” McMillen Long, Born May 24th, 1939, in Fort Wayne, IN; Died Friday, May 13th, 2022, in Seattle, WA. Lee was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Elizabeth F. and Dale W. McMillen, Jr.  She lived most of her young life in Fort Wayne and attended DePauw University for two years.  She married in 1959 and raised three...

May 8, 2022

Mary Ida was born to Birdie Thelma and Finnell Simons on March 25, 1924 in San Francisco, California, where she spent her childhood and her young adult life.  She had many fond memories of living in “The City”, one of which was a day in 1937 when the Golden Gate Bridge opened.  It was fiesta day and she wore...

May 6, 2022

John Wasko, as he would have described it, has gone home. He died on May 6th, 2022 surrounded by love. He was 71 years old, rich with wisdom and a deeply caring and playful heart. According to him, his greatest accomplishment and source of pride was being a great dad to his daughter, Rachel, and his son, Paul. He...

Apr 2, 2022

Meta “Marveen” Potter was born 6/14/1940 in Seattle, Washington to Marvin Leroy and Ruby “Lois” Fitch.  She was the first born of 5 children to Marvin and Lois.  She grew up in Burien and attended Schools in the Highline School District. At 9 years old she contracted Rheumatic fever. At the time, they did not give penicillin to children.  ...

Mar 26, 2022

July 18, 1937- March 26, 2022

Wayne grew up on a farm in Wisconsin near Lake Michigan where his grandparents and parents, taught him and his siblings to work hard and help others.  He learned quickly, to use and repair the farm’s machinery, raise and sell the fruit, vegetable and grain crops, and helped mowing on neighbors’ properties.  Any...

Mar 23, 2022

1962-2022

Richard Buchheim departed this world on March 23, 2022 following an extended illness.  His life ended at the same place he was born, Overlake Hospital.  A kind, gentle and loving soul, he was the youngest of five children of Betty and Aaron Buchheim.  He was a lifelong resident of Kirkland’s Rose Hill neighborhood, graduating from Lake Washington High...

Mar 17, 2022

Adele Suzanne Thompson McCoy Meredith was born February 11, 1943 to Vivian Willing and Monte Thompson in Freeport, Texas, where Monte worked for the Dow Chemical Company. When Dow’s plant there closed after World War II, the family moved to the Pacific Northwest where Monte took a position with the General Electric Company, first in Portland and then in...

Mar 11, 2022

11/17/1930-3/11/2022

Born into a leading pioneer family, Mary Lee Eden attended Alki Grade School, James Madison Jr. High, graduating from West Seattle High School in 1948. She continued her education at extensions of William & Mary in Norfolk, Virginia and later at the University of Washington. In 1951, she married Donald “Lefty” Eden. Family and tennis became one of...

Mar 9, 2022

1947 - 2022

Lester “Les” G. Gruner, of Seattle, Washington, died March 9 at the age of 74 after a brief illness. We celebrate the life of Les Gruner with gratitude for the light and joy he brought to so many of us.

Les was born July 22, 1947 in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in...

Mar 8, 2022

Dolores (Dee Dee) Schwartz passed away at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle on March 8, 2022. She was 85. Dee Dee was born in Hartford, Kentucky  in 1936, graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1958 and worked in Bandung, Java, Indonesia as an administrator for a team of US professors at a technology institute from...

Mar 7, 2022

4/16/1930 – 3/7/2022

Born in Topeka, Kansas on April 16th, 1930, to Charles and Marie Tietgen. She married Paul Cook in 1949 and they raised two children in Lawrence, KS, Reedley, Ca and Seattle, Wa. Mary Ann earned her Masters in Early Childhood Education after studies at the University of California at Berkley and Seattle University. She would joke...

Mar 6, 2022

O. Sven Kalve was born to Sofie and Olaf Kalve, the sixth of 8 children, on the family island of Smeholmen on the west coast of Norway on January 8, 1938 and died peacefully in Seattle on March 6, 2022. Sven immigrated to the United States with his father and younger brother on the SS Stavanger, after a family...