Bess Cawthra's Obituary
Bess W. Cawthra
Bess Cawthra was born Bessie Melissa Waeltz in New Athens Township, St. Clair County, Illinois, on February 7, 1921, the youngest daughter of Charles E.H. Waeltz & Ida Linn. She passed into eternal life on December 22nd at her home in Lakewood.
Bess spent her early years on her family's farm outside the village of Fayetteville in southwestern Illinois. She graduated with honors from Freeburg Community High School in 1938, and entered St. Luke's School of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri, in the fall of 1939.
After receiving her RN in 1942, she worked as a general staff nurse at St. Luke's until enlisting in the Army Nurse Corps in 1944. After completing her training, she was deployed to the European theater where she served with units in England, France and Germany for the remainder of WWII.
In 1946, she was accepted into the regular army, intending to make the Army her career. She enjoyed a long assignment in Hawaii, stationed first at Schofield Barracks and then at the newly built Tripler General Hospital. In 1949, while stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, she met a young career Army officer named Jim Cawthra. After a whirlwind romance, Bess accepted his proposal of marriage, and resigned her commission.
On July 20, 1950, she married Jim in Brentwood, Missouri. Bess & Jim had two children: Lynn Marie and David Lee.
Jim's military service took the family to duty stations across the U.S. and the world, including Ft. Knox, Kentucky (twice); Rome, Georgia; Augsburg, Germany; Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas; Washington, D.C.; Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; Hawaii (a welcome return trip for Bess); and Seattle, Washington.
Until the children were in high school, Bess was a stay-at-home mom, although she participated in a number of volunteer activities, including, at various times, Cub Scout Den mother, Girl Scout leader, and reading mentor. She enjoyed taking classes to learn skills that interested her: hat making, beading, Ikebana (flower arranging), cooking, hula, and swimming, just to name a few. She also enjoyed fulfilling her role as an officer's wife when it came to entertaining, and she was known for her yummy home-made hors d'oeuvres and her incredible sit-down dinners for two dozen people at a time.
When Jim retired from the military in May of 1970, the family moved to Colorado, because Washington was -Å"too rainy.- Bess returned to work, joining the staff of St. Francis Hospital in Colorado Springs. In 1978, Bess retired from nursing for a second time, when she & Jim decided there was too much snow in Colorado and maybe the rain in Washington wasn't so bad after all.
They returned to the Tacoma area, where they immediately plunged themselves into the community as active members of both St. Mary's Episcopal Church and various Masonic organizations. Bess was an especially committed member of St. Mary's choir, altar guild and Daughters of the King. She was also very involved with Lewis Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, where she was Worthy Matron in 1986 and created and edited the Chapter Chatter newsletter for almost 20 years.
Bess is survived by her daughter Lynn, as well as an assortment of nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband Jim, son David, sisters Ruth and Dorothy, and her parents.
Visitation will be from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 29, at Mountain View Funeral Home, and a service celebrating Bess's life will be held at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 10630 Gravelly Lake Dr SW, on Friday, December 30, at 11 a.m. Burial with military honors follows the service at Mountain View Cemetery.
Donations may be sent in Bess's name to Multicare Hospice, PO Box 5200, Tacoma WA 98415-0200; St. Joseph's Indian School, 1301 N Main St, Chamberlin SD 57325 (online at www.stjo.org); or to St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 10630 Gravelly Lake Dr SW, Lakewood WA, 98499.
Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home.
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