Virginia (Bohn) Glendenning

Virginia (Bohn) Glendenning, 88, a longtime resident of Moses Lake, died Friday afternoon, Nov. 25, 2006, at home surrounded by loved ones, concluding a courageous year-long battle with cancer.

She was born Virginia Gwendolyn Schmidt on Jan. 29, 1918, in Gackle, N.D., the child of Emelia and Theodore Schmidt. She was raised in Gackle and graduated from high school there. She married Hubert Bohn and they had two children, Meredith "Porky" and Virgilia Ann, before moving west to settle in Omak, in the early 1940s. After Hubert's passing, Virginia met a widower, a newcomer to Omak, the new coach, Pat Glendenning. The two married and moved their blended families to Moses Lake in 1953, where they both lived and thrived until their deaths.

Virginia loved small town life, her family, her friends, and especially her neighbors. Throughout the years she enjoyed the collegiality and companionship of fellow School District employees, golfing with Pat and their friends at the Moses Lake County Club, and attending Moses Lake High School wrestling matches. She enjoyed bridge and especially the desserts and recipe swaps that accompanied those games. At least one Sunday per month she attended the Presbyterian Church where she loved to sing and chat and catch up with familiar friends and neighbors. For those who knew her well, her commitment to ritual and "routine" was her indelible trademark and was also a source of endless good-hearted teasing by her daughters. She loved football, read voraciously, including three newspapers per day, worked crossword puzzles with gusto, watched her "soaps" (11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday to Friday) since their inception and followed current events especially by watching evening news at 5 p.m. each night. In recent years, due to her never-ending ability to keep learning and growing (excluding switching to a push-button telephone or using a microwave), she had begun following reality TV, watching Survivor, and most recently Dancing with the Stars. Virginia also gave generously (and of course regularly) to the Presbyterian Church for fifty years as well as Boys Town, United Way, and a host of other charities too long to list.

Virginia (Bohn) Glendenning fully lived her whole life and upon learning that it was ending, she fully lived her last wish to die at home - and God willing her wish was granted. Virginia inspired love, respect and admiration and she is a part of us. Anyone who met her remembers her buoyant walk, her easy smile, her twinkling eyes, and her eternal interest in life, living, and the curiosity to "see what happens next."

Survivors include her two daughters and daughter-in-law, Jill Ray, Atlanta, Ga; Shelley Glendenning, Tacoma; and Maxine Bohn, of Moses Lake; eight grandchildren: Mike Ray, Ginny Ray, Sheryl Ray, Kalen Krueger, Mike Bohn, Mark Bohn, Monty Bohn, and Marty Bohn; nine great-grandchildren, Jennifer Ray, Tessa Krueger, Ruby Krueger, Mallory Johnson, Matthew Bohn, Brandi Bohn, Austin Bohn, Brittney Bohn, and Karissa Bohn, six brothers, E.J. Schmidt, Omak, Dee Schmidt, Brewster, Eloyen Schmidt, Myron Schmidt and Marlo Schmidt of greater Seattle area; and one sister, Viona Remboldt of Everett.

Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by two husbands, Hubert Bohn and Pat Glendenning, two sisters, Phyllis Schmidt and Adella Hummel, one brother, Don Schmidt, and her son, Meredith "Porky" Bohn.

A funeral service of commemoration to celebrate the life of Virginia (Bohn) Glendenning, will be conducted at 2 p.m. Thursday afternoon, Nov. 30, 2006, in the Kayser's Chapel, with Minister Eric Frey officiating. The service will conclude in the funeral home chapel followed by interment in the Pioneer Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Kayser's Chapel. Family and friends are invited to a reception at Michael's on the Lake immediately following the interment.

Those who wish may make a memorial in her name to Big Bend Community College, Larry and Lorrayne Peterson Nursing Scholarship, 7662 Chanute Drive N.E., Moses Lake, Wash. 98837, or to Lance Armstrong LIVESTRONG Foundation, PO Box 161150, Austin, Texas, 78716-1150.