Obituary: Wise, Eileen Viola (Shouse)
She was the seventh of eight children born to her parents, Hiram and Bertine, and number 18 of 19 children of her Civil War veteran father, Hiram Craig Shouse.
Upon graduation, and excelling in school, Eileen spent a year at Mankato Business School in MN.
She then attended Huron College in SD.
Early in WW II and after passing Civil Service exams, she was sent to Fort Peck, MT, during which she saw a cover of Life magazine picturing women in uniform, leading her to apply and be accepted into the first class of Navy Waves (Women Accepted for Voluntary Enlistment under Emergency Orders).
A lifelong desire for travel and adventure had begun!
Based mainly in San Francisco and then Tacoma Navy Shipyards, she enlisted first and later was recommended for and sent to officer training school at Smith College in Massachusetts.
She ended her Navy years as Lieutenant JG.
She then worked as executive secretary to the head of King County General Hospital (Harborview) in Seattle, rooming with her sister Anne until her marriage to Richard Wise, himself a Navy veteran, in Seattle in 1948.
Dad was a meteorologist and together they lived in Seattle, Garland, TX, and finally Spokane during his years with the National Weather Bureau.
Mom found time during and after raising five children to volunteer as room mother, PTA, Girl Scout leader, CASA volunteer for nine years, and at both the food bank and Meals on Wheels for years with our Dad.
She served many ways at Northwood Presbyterian Church as a 50-plus year member and both as deacon and elder.
She sewed many clothes and baked countless cookies.
Camping at Priest Lake was an annual event.
A voracious reader, she also loved music and travel, visiting the kids wherever we happened to be, and eventually going to Europe and Britain six times.
Even when disabled from a stroke in 1996, she was still an “armchair traveler”, reading 5-9 books every week up until she died.
Eileen passed May 5th, 2013, in Spokane, WA.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Hiram and Bertine Flotree Shouse, four sisters and two brothers, husband Richard C. Wise in 1995 and son-in-law Daniel Davis in 2010.
She leaves behind a loving, living legacy in her children: Kathleen (Mike) Craig, Seattle, WA; Douglas (Vicki) Wise, Seattle; Sally (Mike) Almond, Jennifer Wise, and Nancy Davis, all of Spokane; seven grandchildren: Michael Jason Craig, Jason Wise, Sean Craig, Tara Craig, Erik Wise, Dustin Davis, and Christina Almond; two great-grandsons: Gavin Davis and Henry Craig.
The family would like to thank the nurses on Sacred Heart’s 7th floor for their care to Mom her final two days.
Burial was held privately at Greenwood Memorial Terrace.
A public memorial to celebrate Eileen’s life will be held Saturday, June 8th, 1 pm at Northwood Presbyterian Church, 6721 N. Monroe St. Memorials may be made to the church.
God blessed us with you in our lives.
We will always love and miss you….’till we meet again.