Winifred Emma LeBlond Leaverton
Winifred Emma LeBlond Leaverton, a former resident of Hope, Sandpoint, and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, passed away Jan. 26, 2009, in Boise, Idaho.
She was born Aug. 18, 1916, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to sensitive, artistic parents and into a family that already had one child, Don LeBlond, the brother that Mom adored and admired. He could build things like roller coasters and he could play the piano magically.
Mom was also artistic; as a teenager she attended a special art school in Cincinnati.
She followed her brother to Colorado State College of Education in Greeley, Colorado and then settled in Seattle, Wash., during World War II. She got an office job and found out that she was ideally suited to and loved office work. She met and married her husband, Don Leaverton. Many years later they divorced, but they always remained friends.
During the war husband Don was stationed in Alaska, her daughter Donna was born, and Mom and daughter moved several times. While in Seattle they lived with another family, Don’s sister, her husband, and daughter, Mildred, Doug and Bonnie Rude. This began a lifelong family closeness. The two little girls grew up like sisters.
After the war the family moved to Sandpoint where a second child, Jack, was born and then to Hope. There Mom learned to swim and drive, she led a Girl Scout troop, wrote newsy articles about Hope for the local paper, sang in the church choir, and watched for enemy planes during the Cold War. Our extended family included the Rudes and our paternal grandparents; each had nearby homes.
In 1961 Mom went to work for the U.S. Forest Service in Sandpoint. When that office moved to Coeur d’Alene, Mom moved, too. When she retired in 1983 from the Forest Service, she then began work as a volunteer for Youth for Christ; and in 1995 when counselors from that group formed a Christian counseling group, Genesis, she went with them to contiue her volunteer work. She was the voice and the face that people saw first. Though there to do office work; what she did was also Christian therapy. Her “clients” remember her fondly. In her 90th year Mom again retired.
Mom always treated people lovingly. She regularly visited “old people” until she herself was too old to drive.
She had moved in 1998 from her beloved little house in Coeur d’Alene to Fairwinds, a senior living complex in Coeur d’Alene. In January 2008 when life became too confusing for Mom to handle without help she moved to Boise to be near her son and daughter-in-law, Jack and Diane. She lived at Plantation Place where the other residents and staff gave her companionship and respect.
Mom lived a long life, and a number of relatives preceded her in death: her father and mother, Bert and Abbie LeBlond; her brother, Don and his wife, Ruth; and her former husband, Don; his brother, Jack; and her brother-in-law Doug. Still living are Mildred Rude and daughter Bonnie and her husband Gene Smith; and brother Don’s children, David, Richard, and Marilyn. Daughter Donna lives in Tennessee with husband Allan Ellstrom. Donna has two children, John Olson and Kirsta Brown, and one grandchild, Kaitlin Olson. Son Jack and wife Diane have been close by in Boise. Crista de Lathauwer, Mom’s adopted grandchild, lives in Boise.
The family is very grateful for the kind and loving care that Mom received at Plantation Place and from XL Hospice.
A celebration of Mom’s life will be held at Plantation Place, 3921 Kessinger Lane in Boise on Monday, Feb. 16, at 2 p.m. A memorial service will be held in Coeur d’Alene at The United Methodist Church, 1470 W. Hanley on Sunday Feb. 22 at 2 p.m.
In lieu of flowers the family suggests that memorials may be sent in Mom’s name to Genesis at Box 1677, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83816-1677 or to The United Methodist Church in Coeur d’Alene at 1470 W. Hanley, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83814.