Isabelle Anna (Van Nice) Winship

Isabelle Anna (Van Nice) Winship, age 97, a resident of Warden, WA since 1955, passed away after a brief illness on Saturday, November 9, 2013 at Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake, WA, surrounded by her family. Arrangements are in care of Kayser's Chapel & Crematory. Services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, November 16, 2013 at Kayser's Chapel, followed by interment in Warden's Sunset Memorial Gardens. After a brief graveside service, there will be an informal reception nearby in Warden, with the location to be announced at the service and also on Kayser's website at www.kayserschapel.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Moses Lake Public Library Foundation. Details will be available on Kayser's website or by phone.

Isabelle was born December 7, 1915 on a farm near Russell, Lucas County, Iowa, where all her sets of grandparents and great-grandparents had settled in the 1850s and 1860s. Her parents were Lester Roland and Junia Effie (May) Van Nice. In 1939 she moved to San Francisco, California, where she married Raymond Roger Winship, Sr. on November 19, 1941. Raymond was another Midwesterner, from a farm in Putnam County, Illinois, who was stationed in San Francisco because of WWII. After their marriage, they resided in Southern California, living in several Los Angeles suburbs, where Raymond was employed in the aircraft industry. Their four children were born in California. She was very active in the PTA and enjoyed the California lifestyle.

In 1955, they decided to return to farming. They moved to the new Columbia Basin Irrigation Project where they cleared sagebrush and leveled land for farming. They planted trees, built a home and farm buildings, and raised wheat, corn, sugar beets, beans, alfalfa, beef cattle and pigs. Isabelle helped with the farming, driving tractors and trucks, while raising a family and holding down a succession of jobs. They retired from farming in 1990 but continued to live at the family farm house.

Isabelle was always at the forefront of adapting to change. She grew up on a farm with no electricity and running water. Her father farmed with horses, but she obtained a drivers license in her teens, survived Los Angeles traffic in the 1950s, then drove wheat truck here in Grant County in the 1970s. She started writing with an old-style pen dipped in an inkwell, but by age 87 she got her first computer, with internet and email access.

One of her first jobs was teaching a one-room school in Iowa. She had a life-long interest in education, reading, history, and literature. In the 1960s she successfully lobbied for a new library building in Moses Lake. She was a published author and for many years had a monthly column, 'Harvests of the Past', in the Columbia Basin Farmer. Isabelle was an advocate of education, world peace, racial equality and women's rights.

Isabelle grew flowers, vegetables, fruit, and nuts in her home garden and orchard. She studied nutrition and healthy eating, and she loved to cook and feed family and friends at any opportunity. For a number of years, she would grind wheat from the family farm into flour, to make from scratch some of the best rolls and bread ever tasted.

She enjoyed weekly trips to Moses Lake and scripture studies with her longtime friend and neighbor Maxine Ring. She loved spending time with the children in her family, and with Maxine's young relatives. She spent her last years living independently at her home surrounded by the beauty of the trees and flowers that she and her family had planted. Her family visited frequently. Her greatest joy was when the entire family would gather to share a meal.

She is survived by 2 daughters, Mary (Winship) Merritt and husband Marvin of Desert Aire, WA and Apache Junction, AZ; and Alice Winship of Seattle, WA; son Allen Winship and wife Nunn of Marlin, WA; grandsons, Erik Walker and wife Tina of Burbank, WA, Ryan Walker and wife Sarah of Leavenworth, WA, and Brent Winship and wife Hannah of Marlin, WA; step-grandsons Michael Merritt and wife Theresa of Seattle and Mark Merritt of Seattle, great-grandsons Holt and Ford Walker of Leavenworth, WA, and step-great-granddaughter Madison Merritt of Seattle; and sister Sue (Van Nice) Tinder of Indianola, Iowa; and many special friends.

Besides her parents and husband, Isabelle was preceded in death by a son, Raymond Winship, Jr; brother Lester Van Nice Jr; and son-in-law Dale H. Walker.