Ina Johnson Patty

It is with great sadness that I am notifying my friends of my mother, Ina Johnson Patty’s peaceful death on Dec. 21, 2008.

Ina lived 93 great, full years. Her mind was alert but, alas, her heart was not. She passed peacefully away after writing her Christmas cards and still discussing the loss in overtime by Gonzaga in basketball.

Ina was born and lived her early years in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. She had great stories of growing up on Swede Island and traveling to school with her brothers — all four of them — in a horse-draw wagon. Later, my grandfather packed up the 1923 Buick touring car and moving the family to Oregon.

Mom obtained her lifetime teaching certificate from Southern Oregon College in 1935. He began her teaching career in a four-room school house in Glendale, Ore., and ended it teaching in Eugene, Ore. She was a great teacher. I know this because I was in her second-grade class in Portland, Ore.

In 1940, Ina married her high school sweetheart, Stewart patty. They eloped to Reno, Nev. Dad preceded her in death in 1985. Mom continued her winter travels to Yuma, Ariz., to the home they bought after Dad’s retirement; but in 1999, she moved to Sheldon Oaks Retirement Center in Eugene, Ore. Her funeral was held there so all her friends could come on Jan. 17, 2009.

Survivors include three daughters, Karen Feist of Sandpoint, Idaho, Barbara Boucock of Eugene, and Martha Martens of Mukilteo, Wash.; four grandchildren, Chris and Luke Feist of Sandpoint, and Matt and Emily Martens of Mukilteo; and a brother, Elmer Johnson.

Ina will be interred next to Stewart on June 6, 2009, at 11 a.m. at Spokane Memorial Gardens in Spokane, Wash. Services will be performed by Connie Spurgeon.