Yvonne Boursse, 85

Yvonne Boursse passed away peacefully, Jan. 20, 2012, after a long battle with heart trouble.

As the oldest of four children of Ezra and Gladys Ruby Gjerset, Yvonne grew up managing and playing with her three brothers and many cousins. She quickly became an organizer who nurtured the spirits of her family.

Later with her late husband, Art, she raised four boys to adulthood while at the same time helping and supporting her sons volunteer and contribute to successful church and community events while successfully running an at-home business for her professional career. Yvonne loved to work with people to make them shine.

Yvonne was born March 3, 1926, in Chisholm, Minn., to Ezra Mozart Gjerset and Gladys Ruby Gjerset (Strick). Ezra came from a large Norwegian family which eventually settled in the Scandinavian regions of Minnesota. Gladys, also came from a large English family of 12 sisters and brothers. As a young girl, Gladys and her family were going to sail over to America on the Titanic. Luckily, Gladys became ill and the family had to cancel their trip and came over on the next ship. Eventually, Ezra and Gladys were married and Yvonne was the first born in 1926.

Yvonne grew up with parents who had the entrepreneurial spirit. Her father was a sign painter and businessman and her mother was the managing partner of their family of four children. Ezra and Gladys traveled around the country eventually living at one time or another in most of the existing 48 states. Their abilities in running the sign painting business and adapting to many new American cultures as they traveled around the "States" gave Yvonne the life skills to manage a family, her work and the abilities to adapt to many new challenges.

Yvonne's family of self-made business people "rubbed off" on her right after high school when she went to work for the Hercules Powder Company in Baraboo, Wis., from 1944 to 1945. She gained recognition as an efficient and courteous worker, performing as a stenographer and bookkeeper. Yvonne's innate initiative spurred her to be a self-taught learner of new skills which she continued on through teaching her four children to love life, work and become entrepreneurs before the word even became popular.

On New Year's Day in 1947, she married Art Boursse. Their first home was in Seattle where they had four sons. In 1956 they moved to Los Angeles, Calif., where they settled to raise their family. Like all mothers, she always worked either in the home or in an outside business. Off and on, she worked as a stenographer and medical secretary for the Los Angeles Police Department and the United States Veterans Administration. As a self-taught person, through educational courses or on her own initiative, she was a great business and family organizer. For many years, between her outside jobs she ran an "at-home" ironing business. Her sons remember moving all of the customers' laundry baskets around the house looking for their baseball mitts accidentally "tossed" in a waiting laundry basket.

Yvonne had a lifelong interest in the arts, music and wildlife. Musically, she inspired her family by being a lifelong piano player which filled her childrens' early years with beautiful household music. Through the years she taught many young people to play the piano. Her love of nature was evident by her love and work with Art as their family went camping every year for their vacations. She had a lifelong hobby of raising birds, beautiful canaries and finches. The birds' songs filled the house where Yvonne and Art lived. Art would go around the house whistling trying to imitate the beauty of the songbirds.

In 1995, Yvonne and Art moved to Coeur d'Alene to retire and renew their early connection to the northwest. After moving to Coeur d'Alene she continued her interest in nature and birds by raising the canaries and finches and making picnic lunch trips to Lake Coeur d'Alene watching the Bald Eagles soar over the water. Yvonne and Art became active in their local senior center and enjoyed taking rides in their newly restored 1929 Model A Ford.

Yvonne was predeceased by her husband, Arthur Boursse; her son, Alan Boursse; her parents, Ezra and Gladys Gjerset; and her younger, brothers Gary and Lowell Gjerset.

Yvonne is survived by her brother, Ronald Gjerset and Yvonne's three sons, André Boursse and wife, Annis of San Francisco, Calif., Artie Boursse of Bonney Lake, Wash., and Pierre Boursse of Charlotte, N.C. Yvonne is also survived by her grandchildren, Heather Lee-Boursse of Sherman Oaks, Calif., and Ryan Boursse of Pinole, Calif.; and several nieces and nephews.

Services were held Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, at English Funeral Chapel with burial following at Riverview Cemetery in Coeur d'Alene.

Please sign Yvonne guest registry and view her online memorial at www.englishfuneralchapel.com.