Wilma Louise Owen

Wilma Louise Owen of Paradise Valley in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, passed away peacefully in her home on June 4, 2011, at 89. 

Services will be held on Monday, June 13, 2011, at 3 p.m. in the Bonners Ferry Funeral Home, with private inurnment in the Grandview Cemetery.

Wilma was born on Jan. 30, 1922.  She lived in Oklahoma, California and Idaho. 

During WW II she worked in the shipyards of Richmond, Calif., as a welder and eventually become the manager of the Welders Supply Shack where she met and married her husband of 68 years, Max L. Owen. 

Both Wilma and Max worked as telegraph operators for the Southern Pacific Railroad. 

She attended Pacific Union College and Humboldt State College where she graduated. Teaching became Wilma’s passion and she was a dedicated teacher to all her students. 

She taught in Crescent City, Lodi, Eureka and Redding, Calif.

In 1971 she and her husband moved to Bonners Ferry where Wilma taught in the public schools. She was an active member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for many years.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Bennie and Ila Dillbeck; sisters Polly Johnson and Neva Lomax.

Wilma is survived by her husband, Max L. Owen; nieces Lynda Blumberg of Spokane, Wash., Mary Medeiros of Huston, Texas, and Sherlyn Jacobs of Sacramento, Calif.; and several great nieces and nephews.

She will be missed by all.

Family and friends are invited to sign Wilma’s book at www.bonnersferryfuneralhome.com  Arrangements are entrusted to the care of Bonners Ferry Funeral Home.