Hazel Rita (Hughes) Fontaine, 85
Hazel Rita (Hughes) Fontaine, 85, passed away on Friday, Feb. 20, 2009, in Sandpoint, Idaho.
Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, at the Lakeview Funeral Home Chapel with a reception to follow in the Lakeview Funeral Home reception room.
Hazel was born on Aug. 28, 1923 in Miller, S.D., to David Lambert Hughes and Mary Elizabeth (Wade) Hughes.
Following the death of her father, Hazel’s mother married Henry Calsbeck. Hazel grew up in Miller, S.D.,, parts of Nebraska, Sioux City, Iowa, and Portland, Ore.
As a teenager, Hazel was a figure skater, skating at the arena where Olympic skater Sonia Heine practiced skating.
Hazel also spent her summers on her aunt’s farm.
She studied nursing while in Sioux City prior to moving to Portland. She married Jack Fontaine on July 26, 1941, and moved to California; living in Whittier, South Gate, Victorville and Oxnard. Her husband, Jack, passed away on Jan. 3, 1975. Hazel moved to Sandpoint in 1993.
During World War II, she worked for Boeing as “Rosie the Riveter” and endured hard times raising her three children while her husband was serving in the U.S. Navy.
She also lived in Gresham and Milwaukee, Ore., for a while, returning to Oxnard, Calif., where she and Jack worked for Karl’s shoes; Jack as manager and Hazel as bookkeeper.
A few years after the war, Hazel, Jack and her children moved to Vanport, close to the Columbia River, in a small community outside of Portland, Ore.
One afternoon they decided to take a drive, our mother loved to go for rides in the country. They had not been gone but a short time when the dike broke and flooded the whole community, and train yard.
Our grandparents heard it on the radio and rushed to the area to find us. After they saw the devastation they feared the worse. Grandma and Grandpa returned home, and a few minutes later Hazel and family drove up in the driveway of her parent’s home.
Although they had lost everything in the flood except the clothes they had on, by God’s grace, and our mother’s relief, Hazel, Jack, and her three small children; Jeane, Yvonne and 5-month-old baby Yvette, survived.
During the big band music era, Hazel loved to dance with her husband and friends.
She remembered as a young girl going next door to Lawrence Welk’s mother’s home. She enjoyed listening to this musical family as Welk’s mother was Hazel’s mother’s neighbor and best friend.
Hazel enjoyed seeing the big bands and dancing the nights away. Jack and Hazel taught ballroom dancing during her years in Iowa.
Hazel later worked for Raytheon as an assembler and Oxnard Dry Cleaners, retiring due to an injury.
Hazel loved cooking, flowers, bingo, dancing and especially her grandchildren and family. She volunteered many years for the Jerry Lewis Telethon in California. This was her favorite project fundraiser and was dear to her heart.
She always praised this project for the many volunteers including Hollywood stars that she became great friends with.
She loved to go to Laughlin and Las Vegas, Nev., with her senior friends.
Hazel’s life was full, and she passed away peacefully in the arms of Jesus.
She is survived by a son, Jeane B. Fontaine of Sandpoint; and two daughters, Yvonne M. Fontaine of Sandpoint, and Yvette (Harold) Rainey of Sagle, Idaho. Six grandchildren, Rick Pyle Rainey, John Rainey, Glen Rainey, David Nabors, Ed Fontaine, and Marianne Palmer; 15 great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews also survive.
She was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers, sisters, Vonda Van Meter and Lena Holce; and a grandson, James Duncan.
Lakeview Funeral Home in Sandpoint is handling the arrangements.
Please visit Hazel’s memorial at www.lakeviewfuneral.com and sign her online guest book.