Arlene (Watts) Wallace, 88

Arlene (Watts) Wallace passed away peacefully on March 13, 2011, at the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls following a six-month illness.

 Arlene, born Margarete Arlene Deobald, arrived April 15, 1922, in Kendrick, Idaho, the oldest of five children born to Edwin Albert and Anna Becker Deobald. Her childhood was spent in Kendrick where she graduated in 1939 as valedictorian of her class at Kendrick High School. She then pursued her education at the University of Idaho in Moscow, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Science degree in business in 1943.

 On July 19, 1942, Arlene married Joseph William Watts in Kendrick. Joe and Arlene made their home in Moscow where Joe was an accountant, and later business manager and bursar at the University of Idaho. Together they raised four daughters, Jane, Linda, Carol and Sue. 

 Following Joe’s untimely death, Arlene married John Andrew Wallace on March 21, 1987, and became stepmother to Kristianna and John Clarke. Arlene and John made their home in Whitefish, where Arlene joined PEO Chapter BR and where she and John volunteered at the Whitefish Library and the Whitefish Train Depot Museum. For many years they enjoyed organizing the monthly birthday parties and the Christmas gift shop for the residents at the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls.

 Arlene’s family and friends loved listening to Arlene play the piano. She enjoyed doing embroidery and baking cookies, pies, and other sweet treats. She was interested in local history and one of her passions was genealogy. Her extended family was quite large and their frequent family reunions and “cousin picnics” were very important to her.    

 In late September 2010 Arlene was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She and John subsequently moved together to the Whitefish Care and Rehabilitation Center and then to the Montana Veterans Home. John passed away on March 10, 2011, just three days before Arlene’s death. Our family wishes to thank all the doctors, nurses, aides, other staff and volunteers at both facilities for their compassionate care during Arlene and John’s last months.

 Arlene was also preceded in death by her 10-year-old daughter, Carol, in 1963; her parents, Anne and Eddie; her first husband, Joe; her brother, Theodore “Ted” Deobald; and her second husband, John. 

Arlene is survived by her sister, Annabel Keene, of Moses Lake, Wash.; her brothers, Charles Deobald and John Deobald, both of Kendrick; her sisters-in-law, Barbara Deobald of Richland, Wash., Betty Watts Bell of Lewiston, Idaho, and Ervalyn Hill of Bend, Ore.; her daughters, Jane Weiss of Cardiff, Calif., Linda and husband Dale Newberry of Moscow, and Sue and husband, Dave Eschen of Moscow; and her stepchildren, Kris and husband Sven Ollestad of Bothell, Wash., and John C. Wallace of Whitefish. Nana will be missed by her many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

 A celebration of Arlene’s life is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 26, at the 1912 Center in Moscow. Private burial will take place at the Moscow Cemetery. A second celebration is planned in Whitefish later in the spring.

 The family suggests memorials to the Whitefish Library, the University of Idaho Arboretum, or the Juliaetta-Kendrick Heritage Foundation.