Birth date: Nov 12, 1933 Death date: Jul 15, 2025
Florence Maude (Wallace) Koestler, hub of Wallace-Koestler family information and decades of holiday traditions, died July 15, 2025, in Puyallup, at age 91. Florence was born Nov. 12, 1933, in Tacoma, Wash., and lived the vast ma Read Obituary
We will miss you more then you will ever know.
My Mother
In the beginning, the first thing I remember is being tossed into the air by my father, who evidently thought throwing a kid in the air was funny. But all of a sudden, I heard this scream, “Duane, you’re going to drop him” from my always-protective mother. That was the beginning of my experience with a Super Woman: Intelligent, Beautiful, Tough, Compassionate, a maker of pies, cakes, even butter, and who canned and froze vegetables and fruit, plus worked 40 hours a week at her “day job.”
There was a time in my life, after my father died (1971), however, that I started screwing up my relationship with my mother. I stayed out all night, basically running with the devil, not understanding how I was hurting my her. But eventually, by the grace of God, we got through it. And I am totally grateful for her support, understanding, always being there for me, and her unconditional love. Plus, she was great at crossword puzzles, Scrabble, and her knowledge of trivia was hard to beat.
Mom was the matriarch of the family, and my neighbor for 24-plus years. God bless you, Mom. I will forever love you! R.I.P.
-- Kevin
When first meeting Florence at Washington Natural Gas Co., she seemed like a force to be reckoned with. She could leave the most commanding person in a room shaking in their boots. But once you got to really know her, she was a truly great friend and would carry you on her back if you had trouble walking. Her family could have no better champion than Florence. Not a day or outing passed without mention of her children. They were all her light and purpose in life, and her strength and loyalty belonged solely to them. She sent cards for every occasion and holiday, and her "Love, Florence" signature spoke volumes. I'll be forever grateful for every moment of her life she shared with me. As she would say: Lord love a duck! Oh, how very much she will be missed!
