Mabel Mauch

Mabel Mauch died Saturday, Jan. 27, 2007, at Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake. She was known to most people as Mabel Leonard.

Mabel was born March 20, 1917, at Big Piney, Mo., to Clifford and Josephine Bartlett Steward. She moved with her family to northeast Oklahoma when she was very young where she attended school and graduated High School as her class of 1934 s alutatorian.

Mabel married a Miami Indian, Sam Leonard, at Picher, Okla., in 1935 where they remained until moving to Sunnyside in 1947.

In 1953, Sears announced they would be opening a catalog store in Sunnyside so she decided to apply for a job. Mabel was quite surprised when the district manager called her back in to offer her the position of store manager. He told her she had achieved a very high score on the executive test. From that point on she never lived a dull moment! Sears transferred her to Moses Lake in 1962 to manage the Sears store there.

When her husband died, the regional office in Seattle had been trying to promote her to district manager for more than two years but she refused because of her husband's health. Very shortly after burying her husband of 38 years the regional director approached her once more and she accepted the promotion making her the first and only woman in the history of Sears catalog to be promoted to the executive position of district manager. She would go to conferences and be the only woman in the group which inspired the company to invite the wives of her male contemporaries to attend executive functions they had never been invited to before so that Mabel would not stand out as the only woman in the group. She won many promotional contests and awards over the years. She was in charge of 17 catalog stores located in Western Montana, Central Washington and Northern Idaho thus she was constantly on the road either by car or plane. She had many hair-raising tales of the winter driving conditions in the great Northwest. Mabel retired from Sears in 1979 after 25 years of employment with the company.

After retirement, Mabel joined a group called Loners On Wheels, which is a group of retired singles who travel together in their RVs and was a snowbird every winter. She married Herbert Balliet of Moses Lake in 1979 and he preceded her in death in 1983.

After marrying Reuben Mauch in 1986, she sold her home in Moses Lake and they became full time RV'ers for several years. Reuben also preceded her in death in 2005.

Mabel is survived by her only daughter, Sammye Darling of Moses Lake, four grandchildren Kent (Kara) Darling, Denese (Ted) Mata, Danette Biallas of Moses Lake and Danelle (Kent) Corrick of Tacoma and 10 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. There will not be a service. Arrangements are in care of Kayser's Chapel and Crematory, Moses Lake.