Myrtle Louise Manuel McCart
Myrtle Louise Manuel McCart passed Jan. 5, 2023, in Wenatchee, Washington, at age 91. She was our mother.
Mom was born in Pond Creek, Oklahoma, and grew up there with her sister MaryAnn and parents Pete and Linnie Manuel. She graduated as valedictorian from Pond Creek High School. Go Panthers!
Mom married Berry "Bud" McCart, and they moved to Quincy, Washington, following the building of Grand Coulee Dam and the availability of irrigated land for farming. She and Bud raised three girls in a home by the last school bus stop on Monument Hill. They adopted many dogs dropped off at the end of the lane and fought off roosters when raising chickens and collecting eggs. Horses were usually in the corral, and that allowed for 4-H projects and some sagebrush land range-riding. Mom would add some chlorine bleach to the finicky well when it needed it and would bring home the milk from the dairy she visited once a week, to separate out the cream and stir in some powdered milk to stretch things out a bit. The ability to identify milk with powdered milk stirred in remains a skill her children appreciate, not needing it anymore.
She learned to drive in her 30s, by getting in the car and stepping on the gas until she needed to slam on the brakes. Having flopping children in the backseat afraid to look out the window going up the mountainside seem to incentivize her. Unawares, the State of Washington eventually gave her a driver’s license, which she only reluctantly gave up in her mid-80s, having never really bought into the faddish seat belt craze.
She made every meal with at least three different foods offered on the table and brought out the prized raspberry Jello salad when it was a special enough time. She was a Bluebird troop leader. She sewed prom dresses for her girls. She allowed pollywogs to be kept in jars in the house. She cut out Dear Abby columns about how to behave and posted them on the fridge when the girls were teenagers. We think she enjoyed being a mom. She did not enjoy fishing, but was married to a man who did, and he bought a boat, so she enjoyed what she could about their outings. One of those outings came with a cherry vodka incident with their neighbors, the Gebers, at Conconully. And that outing was a surprise story for her children to hear years later.
Dad and Mom ran a successful tree spreader business for many years in George, Washington. They would take annual trips with Mom's sister MaryAnn and her husband Wendell Cole, venturing to the coast, or once to the wilds of Banff. They saved images of these trips with their Instamatic camera, and even a Super 8 movie camera. We can forever see how much fun they had. They all loved a good road trip. Mom and Dad also loved a passel of grandkids, and definitely preferred the grandkids' company to the bossy parents those grandkids somehow had. Even when the grandkids had to sit at the kids table (porch) for Thanksgiving, they loved going to visit Grandma and Grandpa because there was always something new going on.
Dad died in 2000, and a few years later Mom left their home and property they'd developed and moved "into town" - Quincy. She was a Quincy Beautification Project helper, and especially proud of the flower beds near the new fire station by the canal. For a time, she enjoyed attending the Presbyterian church, and the friends she made there. Mom flew for the first time at age 67, and the second time at age 78. To her the flights were both a misery, but she got to return to Oklahoma for a bit. She endured a knee replacement and gall bladder surgery, but was in generally good health her whole life. No doubt strawberry ice cream was a key factor. Mom moved into assisted living in Wenatchee and was visited weekly by her two daughters who live nearby. Her favorite thing on the daily menu was Cheerios; her favorite spot was a big ugly comfy recliner. She enjoyed the friendly staff and getting to chat multiple times a day with attendants.
Mom had dementia, and eventually the voracious influenza A going around caught her, and pneumonia and COVID did their damage at the end. Her daughters made sure she got good hospital and then hospice care, and her end was painless.
Left behind, grateful to have been her family, are her sister MaryAnn and husband Wendell Cole, as well as Myrtle and Bud's daughters Deb Arnold (Pat), Linda Omlin (Jack) and Kathy McCart. Mom and Dad's superior grandchildren are Elizabeth Henry (Cory) and their child prodigies Claire and Hannah; Becky Leingang (Jack) and their child prodigies Gabe, Bannon and River; Jared Omlin (Jaime) and their child prodigies Kalista, Trenton and Darby, with Darby's prodigies Marleigh and Magnolia; Jennifer Clark and her prodigy Cody Clark (Brooke); Jill Solders (Tory) and their prodigies McKennah and Mason Solders; Kayce Gilcrist (Tracy) and their prodigies Kiera and Bekah; Heather Stavish (Eric) and their child prodigies Owen and Paige; Eamon Spiegelberg and partner Jillian Mamuzich.
The family plans a celebration of her life later in the spring. There will be Jello salad.
Please leave a memory for the family or sign the online guestbook at www.scharbachs.com.
Scharbach’s Columbia Funeral Chapel, Quincy, is assisting the family with arrangements.
