Zella E. Fye, 91

Zella was born May 4, 1924, and went home to the Lord on Oct. 15, 2015, at the age of 91.

Zella was predeceased by all of her siblings and her parents, Minnie Esther Wallman Wasson and Leroy Joseph Wasson. She is survived by two daughters Diane Lynne Lindahl of Oak Harbor, Wash., and Sally Sue Geary of Anthem, Ariz. She is also survived by five grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.

Zella was an RN for many years and after her marriage to Albert O. Fye, also deceased, she moved to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 1959. She worked at the old Kootenai hospital which became the new and expanded Kootenai Medical Center where she was head Nurse of the Surgical Ward. When she left the medical center she went into teaching at North Idaho College in the LPN program where she stayed for 16 years turning out caring and compassionate LPN’s, many of whom went on to become RN’s. She was very proud of all of her students and they loved her as well.

After she retired, she did not give up her nursing career, she kept on caring for friends and neighbors, many of whom lived in Coeur d’Alene and Hayden Lake, as well as her disabled husband and his sister, Ida, who had cancer. She delighted in visiting her family in Iowa, and her daughters. On one trip to Arizona to see them she suffered a stroke, and then went to live with her youngest daughter, Sally Sue, in Arizona from 2008 until her death in 2015.

Mother was an original who fought for the rights of women long before it was “in vogue” and worked tirelessly for their welfare as well as the welfare of abandoned animals in her community.

In lieu of flowers, the family would like donations to be made to the North Idaho College Foundation to benefit the Zella Fye Nursing Scholarship fund at North Idaho College Foundation, 1000 W. Garden Ave., Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814 or to the ASPCA. Internment was a private family affair in Arizona.