Alma Grace Libby, 96

Alma Grace Libby, born in Valley Ford, Wash., Oct. 4, 1914, to Dail Dunn Wood and Josephine Ive (McHarg) Wood. She died Nov. 20, 2010, in Vancouver, Wash.

Alma moved to Coeur d'Alene with her family in 1922 near Fort Sherman. When Alma was a child, this area was best known as a steamboat port with over 22 logging mills nearby. From there the family moved to a home her father built on B Street, where she spent her growing up years with her brother, Clyde, and sisters, Mildred and Dorothy.

Upon graduation from Coeur d'Alene High School in 1934, Alma married her high school sweetheart, Richard Libby. Together, they built their first home in Coeur d'Alene. In 1945, they purchased a dairy farm and beef ranch near Wolf Lodge, where they worked side-by-side. They raised three children while living on the farm. In 1988, Alma and Richard moved into town, where they enjoyed teaching kindergartners in the Coeur d'Alene Bible Church Sunday school.

Alma was a woman with courage and spunk. She loved the outdoors, animals, gardening and her family. She said she would have been a kindergarten teacher had she not married a farmer. Her family always thought she would have made a wonderful librarian or historian, as she loved books and collecting the history of Coeur d'Alene. She was good at mental math, which made her a fierce and fun competitor at the game of pinochle. She loved to play "Flinch" with her grandchildren.

Alma lived through 17 presidential administrations, seven wars and the invention of the telephone to the Internet.

She is survived by her brother, Clyde; son Lawrence and wife Edie; daughter Vetra and husband Dwane; daughter Valarie and husband Keith; nine grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, 11 nieces and nephews and the Calvin Shockley family she claimed as her own.

Memorial services were held Nov. 26, 2010, in Vancouver. A short graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010, at Coeur d'Alene Memorial Gardens with friends and family gathering at Heritage Place chapel on the lower level.