Shawn Vestal: A vision of a community, seen through the lives they led

One obituary is a portrait of a life.

Several taken together, though, build a portrait of a community. Recent obituaries in The Spokesman-Review have told the stories of farmers, nurses, plumbers, maintenance workers and engineers.

Here are their stories, summarized from their obituaries.

An agricultural life may have been preordained for Dennis John Fiess. Born in Wilbur, Washington, he was 6 months old when his parents bought the farm on which he lived his whole life. A graduate of Reardan High School and Washington State University, Dennis was a grain farmer and cattleman, along with raising hogs. He managed the Chamber of Commerce agricultural bureau for 14 years and then worked in a WSU Extension agriculture office. He was a 4-H leader, chairman of the Reardan-Edwall School Board and a chairman of Emmanuel Lutheran Church. He led the volunteer effort to build Joe B. Johnson Field in Reardan. He died Feb. 12 at age 77.

Rose Marie Dunn met her future husband, John, at Geiger Field, where she was an office assistant and he was stationed in the Army. A Garfield, Washington, native and 1938 North Central High School grad, Rose Marie married John in 1943, and they raised two daughters in Spokane. She worked later at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Spokane, and after retirement served as a volunteer tax counselor for the IRS. An active member of the women’s auxiliary of the St. Aloysius Catholic Church and a eucharistic minister, she also was instrumental in making changes to the bylaws of the American Italian Club to allow women to become participating members. She died Dec. 16 at age 98.

Born and raised in Reading, Pennsylvania, Donald Clarence Lerch worked around the country as a mechanical engineer, including efforts to mount camera equipment on planes in Boston to film atomic bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean and designing Gatling guns for General Electric in New Hampshire. He moved to Spokane Valley in 1978 to work at Impact Service Corp. and engineer computer equipment for KeyTronic. He died Jan. 30 at age 89.

Sue Ann Mauk-Olsen was a registered nurse at Holy Family Hospital for 38 years, where she worked everywhere from the surgical floor to the maternity center. She particularly loved bringing babies into the world. Born in Nebraska, she moved to Spokane as a child and spent her life here, graduating from Shadle Park High School – where she was a member of the Aqua Tartans synchronized swim team – and Eastern Washington University in 1978. She had two children with her first husband, and later married Curt Olsen in 2013. She died Feb. 10 at age 66.

Walter Gustav Beyer Jr. was a member of the Local 44 Plumbers and Pipefitters Union for 71 years. Born in Spokane, he graduated from Rogers High School, where he played the trumpet in the dance band. He married Bernice Alvina Horch and was drafted into the Army in 1952, serving in the Korean War. He worked for 42 years as a foreman and plumber for several mechanical contractors. He and Bernice raised three sons in Spokane. He died Jan. 20 at age 91.

Betty Joyce Pendergrass met her future husband at a Fireman’s Dance in Garfield when she was 16; they married at the courthouse in Coeur d’Alene in 1956. Betty and her husband, Dale, moved to a home on Broadway Avenue in Spokane in 1969, where they would live for 51 years and raise three sons. She was involved with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and enjoyed researching family history and genealogy. She died Feb. 10 at age 81.

Silvio DeCaro was born in Maione, Italy, a village in the Calabria region of southern Italy. He served in the Italian army as a young man and married Maria Paola Amantea in 1946. They moved with their children to Kimberley, B.C., and then to Spokane in 1960. Silvo worked as a maintenance foreman at The Spokesman-Review for 25 years and was a member of the American Italian Club. He died Feb. 10 at age 95.

The third of three girls born on the family wheat farm in Coulee City, Washington, Rose Adele Bye moved with her family to Greenacres when she was in high school. She attended Whitworth University for a year and then met her future husband, John Bye, at her family’s church, Greenacres Tabernacle. They married in 1953. She worked in insurance for several years before having children; they raised three sons. After they were out of school, she worked part time in her husband’s accounting firm. Rose was a member of the Valley Assembly of God Church for 58 years. In retirement, she and John spent the winter months in Mesa, Arizona, and she took up painting, ceramics and porcelain. She died Feb. 8 at age 88.

Ralph Reifenberger bought his first car at age 14 – a Model T that wasn’t working – for $5. He fixed it where it sat and drove it off. Born in Spokane and raised on the family ranch in Fairfield, he showed sheep at the San Francisco World’s Fair in 1939, winning the national grand champion award. He got his pilot’s license and bought a plane, but chose farming as his lifetime vocation. He and his wife, Geraldine, raised two daughters on the farm they bought a mile away from his childhood home. He helped start the local library, first kindergarten and nursing home in Fairfield. He died Feb. 10 at age 95.