Our View: GU fan a role model, too (Obituary)
Emma Wasson died in the hospital, while down the hill in downtown Spokane, basketball players competed in Hoopfest. Emma was 83, and she hadn’t been sick too long. She had no reason to doubt that she’d make it to her 37th season cheering on Gonzaga University’s basketball team. The ringside grandma was almost as famous as the team. Ronny Turiaf, now with the Los Angeles Lakers, gave her a hug before each game.
We don’t often write obituary editorials in this space, even for famous people. It’s an opinion area, usually reserved for public affairs issues. But Spokane just celebrated another successful Hoopfest, with few complications, despite record heat and crowds. And it’s Fourth of July week; Emma held values that represent the best of who we are in this country.
Above all, she valued education, because she understood it as our country’s way of moving the poor out of poverty, of moving individuals from ignorance into enlightenment.
Emma and her husband, Paul, had 10 children. They raised them in a three-bedroom home in north Spokane. The six girls shared one bedroom; the four boys shared another. Paul, who had a career in the Air Force, returned to college in middle age, role-modeling that it’s never too late to work on a degree. When Paul died of cancer at 47, the children ranged in age from 10 to 22. Despite the family’s lack of resources, education remained a priority.
“There was just no question education would be the ticket out,” said daughter Mary Rose Hawkins. “It was just assumed we would go.”
The Wasson kids all worked while attending college, sometimes toiling at two jobs in addition to attending classes full time. Their mother was their biggest booster. Now these grown Wasson men and women are attorneys, educators, accountants, business owners, and government and nonprofit workers.
Emma also believed in the importance of building community. She built hers around basketball. The year after Paul died, her children bought her a season ticket to watch the GU team everyone called the Bulldogs then. The crowds were sparse. Emma’s commitment never wavered. She cheered for players good and bad, for seasons worse and better. Emma’s stick-with-it value is rare in our instant-gratification culture. She leaves behind 36 seasons’ worth of scorecards meticulously kept by hand.
Emma also demonstrated how older people who choose to become isolated due to infirmities and limitations can instead stay engaged in the game of life, nurturing the coming generations. Fans who witnessed Emma’s hugs for Turiaf and the others knew the players needed those hugs more than she did.
Emma intended to remain loyal to the Zags for as many seasons as she was given. On Saturday, she took her final breath surrounded by all 10 of her children. Emma Wasson died on the first day of Hoopfest. Fitting symbolism of the legacy she leaves behind for family, friends, players, fans – and for the greater Spokane community.