Merle Palmerton

It is with great joy that we celebrate her life and with sadness, we announce the death of longtime Moses Lake resident Merle Palmerton. She died on Jan. 4, 2007, at the age of 91. She was born June 25,1913, in Mt. Vernon, Wash. to Wilbur and Zoe Chesnut. After graduation from high school in Mill City, Ore. she attended Oregon State University where she competed on the swim team and majored in Art. She married Sam Palmerton in Salem, Ore. on Nov. 25, 1941, and they were married for 54 years. They had two children, Gae and Pat. Merle and Sam moved the family to Moses Lake from Idanha, Ore. in 1952 at the opening of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project. They cleared sage brush and built the family farm in Block 41, east of Moses Lake where she lived until Sam's death in 1996. Merle was employed as a secretary by the Moses Lake School District until her retirement. For many years she was the secretary for the district's Special Services Dept. She was a 30-year member of the Washington School Secretaries Association and was selected as one of the top 10 school secretaries in the nation. She hunted and fished, was an accomplished seamstress, baked heavenly pies, loved to dance and play bridge. Merle and Sam traveled throughout the nation and the world during their retirement and loved their winters in Hawaii. They were both avid snorklers.

Merle's most joyful times were with her family and many friends. She loved to laugh and had a wonderful sense of humor and gentleness about her. She is survived by her daughter Gae Wing and husband Ted,vho have two daughters Molly, and Kevin Lalone and Jenny and Ray Knoflach, all of Michigan and her son Pat Palmerton and wife Donna who have two sons Brett and Sharon Palmerton and Darin and Bejai Palmerton of Moses Lake. She has eight great-grandchildren.

There will be no funeral service at this time. However, when the weather warms and the sun shines the family will have a memorial service for her.