Children remember Eula Davaz was there for all of them, all the time

During a visit to the Greenacres home of Eula Davaz, there were three things a person could count on: A hug upon arrival, a belly full of food and a hug before leaving.

Davaz, the mother and stepmother of seven children, was the epitome of super-mom.

She grew her own vegetables, and canned every last one. She knew how to make a bed properly with hospital corners, and made quilts for most every member of her family.

She didn’t get angry easily, or raise her voice.

Organized, frugal and efficient, Davaz even taught the family dog to wipe his feet before entering the house.

To top it off, she could catch fish like a shark.

“Mom always limited-out when she went fishing. That’s the way it was every time,” said her son, Clay Wisbey. “She would at least let us hold her fish.”

Davaz died Oct. 9 at age 79.

Born in Missouri the fourth youngest of 14 children, Davaz moved to Parma, Idaho with her family in 1941 when she was 15.

Davaz loved to retell the tale of the journey, when the entire family headed west in a pickup truck with a tarp pulled over the bed for shelter.

“If you sat at the table long enough, she talked about her family,” Wisbey said.

After the death of her first husband, Davaz moved to Spokane Valley in 1961 with her three children.

“She wanted to take care of us herself and raise us her way,” Wisbey said. “It was very unusual for a woman,” of the time.

Davaz bought the family home east of Barker Road, and it wasn’t until 1966 that she married her husband of 39 years, Allen Davaz.

The couple met while dancing at a club in Stateline, Idaho. Davaz a father of four was separated from his first wife, and in the middle of a divorce.

“She wouldn’t go out with me until the (divorce) papers were signed,” Allen Davaz said. The couple first met in 1963, but Davaz didn’t get his first date until 1964.

“I remembered when I asked her to marry me, she was tickled to death. We had to go straight out to Stateline to have a soda,” Davaz said. “We started dancing, and never quit.”

Then there was the merging of the families.

When Allen Davaz’s four children came to stay in summer, there were seven children for Eula Davaz to keep busy.

She never complained, or showed that raising seven children was a challenge. If there was scolding, it was always delivered gently.

“She never had to get ugly to enforce the rules,” said stepdaughter Linda Davaz.

Parenting and homemaking just came naturally to her, her stepdaughter said. The daily routine was very important, and Davaz rarely broke from it. Wash on Monday, ironing on Tuesday, and grocery shopping on Friday.

“For as hard as she worked, she was always in a great mood because she was doing what she loved to do,” Linda Davaz said.

Davaz aspired to a very simple way of life, with a strong believe in God.

Instead of a yes or no answer to a question, Davaz always responded with “Lord willing.”

“I learned later that meant yes, she’d be there,” her daughter-in-law, Leslie Wisbey said.

She was also very traditional, especially when it came to family roles.

At meal time, the men would eat first. Forever the hostess, she would never sit down to the table herself.

“She was always hovering over you, so she could throw more food on your plate,” Wisbey said. “You never went hungry.”

Davaz cooked a big family dinner every Sunday her entire life, and despised microwave ovens, having never purchased one. She made everything from scratch.

All of her vegetables were grown by her own hand and canned.

“She made the best dill pickles on the planet,” Wisbey said.

“I make them once in awhile but they don’t taste the same,” said her daughter, Penny Johnson.

Her secret?

“Bringing them in fresh and canning them right away,” Allen Davaz said. Ever efficient, she never waited to do anything.

She was reliable. When her children were school-aged, she was in the stands at every athletic event, and was always the parent willing to carpool.

Things never changed as her children got older.

“She was just there for all of us all the time,” her daughter said. “It didn’t matter what was going on in her life, she was always there.”