Florence Wallace Koestler's Obituary
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 majority of her life in the south Puget Sound region, especially Puyallup, Sumner, and the last 65 years on Puyallup’s South Hill. She was proud of her English mother, Maude Ellen Booth, who was born in Croydon, east end of London. On her father’s side, she claimed as an ancestor Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, and in 1991 was able to visit Renfrewshire, Scotland, the ancestral home of Clan Wallace. Appropriately, she was a fan of the bagpipes and especially Tacoma’s Clan Gordon Pipe Band.
She was proud also of her Puyallup pioneer roots: Her great-grandfather, J.P. Nevins, a contemporary of Ezra Meeker, was first secretary of the Western Washington Fair in Puyallup. (Her family still owns stock in what is now the Washington State Fair.) She attended schools in Puyallup and Sumner but graduated from Tacoma’s Lincoln High School in 1951. Florence met her future husband, Duane L. Koestler, at a church dance in Tacoma, after the young Army Air Corps serviceman picked her shoe out of a pile in the center of the dancefloor. The two were married April 4, 1952.
After a brief trial as a farm wife back in the Midwest, the couple returned to the south Puget Sound area, first living in Edgewood on a turkey farm, not far from the original location of the Nyholm Windmill. Then, in 1957 the couple moved to a 5-acre tract – which they bought from Joe and Rita Wilson – just below the crest of South Hill, overlooking the valley and about a mile from the Fairgrounds. It was there that Florence raised and protected her five children, joining the workforce in 1960 to help financially support her family. She started as a switchboard operator at what was then Washington Natural Gas, and not too many days would go by when a child might call and hear her “Washington Natural Gas, how may I direct your call” – only to hear, “Mom! What should we have for dinner?” on the other end. Eventually, she became a lead in the Customer Relations department, retiring in 1995 after 35 years. She made many friends at work and still continued to organize semi-monthly gatherings for the retiree group up to and including this year.
The “Old House on Apple Way,” as her memoir puts it, was a source of comfort, routine, support, many animals, notable hay-harvesting events, and a gathering place for Florence and her children and grandchildren from the late ’50s until it was sold in the mid-1990s as the city of Puyallup engulfed many of the old Fruitland tract farms. However, the Old House remained a home for Florence’s fondest memories. Not all the times were good: Her husband Duane died in a one-car automobile accident in 1971, leaving Florence to finish the job of rearing the kids on her own. Times could be precarious. There were many stories of rushing from the “Gas Company” to the bank with her paycheck on Friday to keep the power company from shutting off the electricity to the Old House, and a few mornings the kids had to huddle in front of the electric stove getting ready for school because the furnace had run out of heating oil. The roof didn’t leak (much or often), and though it might not have been fancy, the kids always had something good and hot to eat. The menu often included vegetables, plums, and pickles that she canned herself, sometimes with support from a green-bean-snapping kid or two along the way. Florence essentially, on her own, raised up five children who eventually were successful and independent in their own right.
Florence was dedicated to all her children’s extra-curricular activities as well. Accompanied often by her own mother, “Maudie” Wallace, “Mom” hardly ever missed a band concert, choral recital, or ballgame from 1958 well into the 2010s, as a series of children and grandchildren and eventually great children went through Puyallup schools and colleges in the south Puget Sound area. (Daughter Lynn Marie Koestler Futch eventually moved to Florida with her husband Randy and to raise her own family, though Florence kept up the barrage of birthday cards and seasonal greetings even there.) Supportive? You bet! And those are among the many positive memories her children and grandchildren will carry forward with them when they think back on “Mom,” “Grandma K,” and the Old House on Apple Way.
Florence was preceded in death by her husband, Duane L. Koestler; a younger brother, Donald G. Wallace; her mother, Maude Ellen Wallace; her father, Donald G.S. Wallace, and a grandchild, Duane Futch. She is survived by sons Gordon D. Koestler (Jean Raabe) of Yakima, WA; Scott L. Koestler (Karen) of Milton, WA.; Kevin J. Koestler (Sabrina) of Puyallup; and daughters Melissa E. Phillips (Mark) of South Hill, WA., and Lynn Marie Futch (Randy) of Edgewater, FL. Survivors include a sister-in-law, Sandy Wallace of Tacoma, WA., as well as six grandchildren (Heather, Caroline, Sarah, Brian, Kirsten, and Azalea), seven great-grandchildren, and numerous cousins.
In lieu of flowers, her family suggests that you send a contribution in Florence’s name to the charity or non-profit organization of your choice or the American Cancer Society.
Viewing is at Mountain View Funeral Home Sunday, July 27, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mountain View is in charge of arrangements at https://mountainviewtacoma.com
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