Phyllis Kathryn (Kay) Heiner Stanfield
Phyllis Kathryn (Kay) Heiner Stanfield passed away at Indianhead Estates in the early hours of July 1, 2010.
She was born in Sidney, Mont., on June 11, 1919, to Roy Heiner and Ruth Willan Heiner, but grew up in or near Sandpoint, Idaho. She was the second of three children.
Because her older sister Helen came home from first grade and taught everything she had learned that day, Kay skipped a grade and graduated early from high school.
She went to St. Olaf College for a year to begin her music studies, and then enrolled at the University of Idaho in Moscow.
She graduated with a degree in music and English and a teaching certificate in 1941. She taught for a year in the Priest River, Idaho, schools.
On Feb. 22, 1942, she married Robert N. Stanfield III of Weiser, Idaho, a recent chemical engineering graduate of U of I. They were married for 62 years until his death in 2004.
After her husband’s service in the Navy during World War II, they lived in Moscow while he got a masters degree, and then in Tulsa, Okla., where he was a professor in the University of Tulsa Department of Petroleum Engineering.
In 1952 the family returned to Weiser so that Bob could take over managing the family ranches in eastern Oregon and Idaho. She took the job of organist and choir director for the First Presbyterian Church, where she served the musical ministry for almost 20 years.
She enjoyed working with young musicians to offer quality composers’ works in the church.
When her four children had all completed elementary school, Kay began teaching part-time in Weiser High School. Soon she was full-time teacher of English and chorus director for Weiser Junior High School.
She worked there until 1969. She also worked for the U.S. Census, doing monthly surveys of Washington County residents and for the Weiser Community Center.
In 1972 the family acquired the Paddock Valley Ranch, 20 miles east of Weiser, where they lived until Bob’s retirement in 1976.
They then made their home in Boise until Bob’s death in 2004. During their stay in Boise, Kay was very active in Laubach Literacy, and was a strong advocate for programs to improve reading training in schools and to offer literacy training to adults.
She worked with the Idaho Literacy Council teaching reading in the penitentiary, to illiterate adults, and to refugees and immigrants.
Her foreign students loved her ability to teach them English and reading. Many of her Southeast Asian refugee students became friends and called her “grandmother.”
After her husband’s death, Kay lived in assisted living, first in Boise and then starting three years ago at Indianhead Estates in Weiser.
She is survived by her brother, Howard Heiner; her children, Robert N. of Honolulu, Hawaii, D. Pablo of Seattle, Wash., Marcia J. of Sutherlin, Ore., and Douglas J. of Honolulu; seven grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held Thursday, July 8, at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Redeemer — Presbyterian in Weiser.
In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to ProLiteracy Worldwide (the succesor to Laubach Literacy), the Salvation Army, or the Bible Study Fellowship