Obituary of Geraldine Lewis

Geraldine “Gerri” Lewis (Waite), a true daughter of Harstine Island, passed away Thursday, March 21st, of complications resulting from a fall in her home. Three times during her 91 years Gerri called the island her home; but always she considered it the place she wanted most to be. Virtually every summer since her December 12, 1927 birth in Seattle found her visiting the Howard Cove property her family owned. In 1906, her grandfather, a Seattle barber, traded his land at University Way NE and NE 45th Street for 70 acres on Harstine Island near what is now the Harstine Island Bridge. Gerri attended 3rd grade when her mother, Alice B. Waite (Howard) and George Theodore Waite, first tried island life in the mid-1930s. A long-used two family camping tent had been replaced by a tool shed converted to a cabin. It was served by a rudimentary, handcrafted water system but had no electricity. Gerri, her older brother, George, and younger sister, Shirley, attended a 1-room schoolhouse serving 8 grades on the island until the challenges of living on the island in those days forced them back to Seattle. By the time WWII began, living conditions on the family property had improved and the move back to Harstine was seen as a way to keep the family safe during a threatening time; they moved back in 1941. Gerri, who lived there until she entered nurses training at Deaconess Hospital in Wenatchee, graduated from Shelton High School in 1945. She always talked about her early years at Harstine as a collection of fun adventures: horseback riding to Spencer Lake for summer swimming, raising chickens to barter eggs for other goods available on the island, riding to shelton in school busses driven by high school senior class football players, and trips across Pickering Passage in the Patrick Bill rowed by her mother when her dates ended after the ferry stopped running. Her adventures continued as she followed her mother into nursing. The Sisters at Deaconess liked Louis Baker, her future husband, so they didn’t mind that he broke the rules by throwing hamburgers to the nurses in training after hours in the dormitory. Gerri and Lou traveled to New York and back to Washington as he pursued his graduate education and Gerri worked as a nurse along the way. She settled in an office in Seattle at the age of 25 when Lou died in a tragic car accident. Living with her best friend since 3rd grade, Jeane Proudfit, Gerri experienced a modern working woman’s life of independence and financial security, something her mother Alice had and that she always wanted for her own daughters. Although Gerri traveled widely with her husband of 51 years, Frank Lewis, whom she married in 1960, it was her escapades with Jeane that captured her heart. In 1956 they quit their jobs and boarded an ocean liner for Europe where they traveled for months in Jeane’s new VW Beetle without so much as a reservation or itinerary. Her life with Frank, a fire management expert for the US Forest Service, involved moving around the country for 20 years, but they always enjoyed summers at Harstine Island. In 1980 when Frank retired from a post in Portland, Oregon, they retired to Harstine and become stalwarts of the community there. In addition to volunteering to serve the Red Cross for many years, she enjoyed many Harstine Island activities including the Community Club, Women's Club, Theater Club, Investment Club and the Harstine Cemetery Committee. An inveterate gardener and renowned good cook, she could often be found in the Community Hall kitchen during special events. The two cookbooks she co-authored were very successful Women’s Club fundraisers. She was especially interested in documenting and preserving Harstine Island History, and shared interesting historical information with visitors and residents through her cookbooks including sketches of pioneer homes on the island and a 1923 book on island geography and history hand-written by students from the Jerrell Cove School. Gerri is preceded in death by her husband Frank who died in 2012, and their son, Fielding, who died at birth in 1965. She is survived by her siblings George Waite and Shirley Dailing; her daughters Nancy O’Dair (Paul), Mary Theo Hoeksema (Greg), and Barbara Morrison (David); and her grandchildren Ellen and Bennett Morrison, Calvin O’Dair, and Connor and Reese Hoeksema. A graveside service to honor Gerri will be at 11:00am on Saturday, March 30, 2019 at the Harstine Island Cemetery, followed by a luncheon hosted by the HICC Women’s Club at the Community Hall at 12:30. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Harstine Island Cemetery Fund in Gerri’s name. Send donations to HICC, PO Box 1635, Shelton WA 98584 (payable to HICC Cemetery Fund (Gerri Lewis)).