Eileen Baldwin

Eileen Baldwin passed away on June 23, 2006.

A service celebrating Eileen's life will be held at the First Presbyterian Church , 417 N. Fourth Ave., in Sandpoint, at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, June 28, 2006, with the Rev. Dr. Nancy Copeland-Payton officiating.

She was born Oct. 24, 1921, the eldest of six children of Ralph and Ethel Hadley in Sandpoint, Idaho. She grew up on Boyer Avenue, attended local schools and graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1940.

During the war years, she worked as a waitress for Eng's Chinese Restaurant, a local eatery that some may remember. In 1948, she married Kyle Fink and they moved to Samuels, where they built a beautiful home above the Pack River.

After Kyle's death, she stayed on in Samuels and worked for the Solbergs as a waitress at the Norway Lodge, a gone-but-not-forgotten road house known for hamburgers, shakes and good conversation. She later moved to Sandpoint and married Donald A. Baldwin. They lived alongside the Bonners Highway (Highway 95) near the Kootenai Cutoff Road.

In 1972, Eileen and Don moved to Sprague, Wash., where the Baldwin family had a wheat farm which was the principal family business. They resided in the town of Sprague, where Eileen kept a gracious home and was known as a skilled gardener.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Susan; her mother and father, Ralph and Ethel; her brother, Raymond; and her husband, Don. She is survived by her sons, Jim (Mary Anne) and Don (Susi); and four grandchildren, Claire, Cody, Mack and Joe.

A donation in her memory may be made to her favorite charity, the Sprague Volunteer Fire Department.