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Shalz
Frances L. Shalz
Frances L. Shalz passed away May 29, 2018, at Life Care Center of Post Falls, Idaho. Frances was born Sept. 7, 1926, to Delbert and Ledwina T. (Winkler) Ritter in Kalispell, Mont., the second to the youngest of eight children. She lived there until her senior year of high school when her family moved to Spokane, Wash., where she graduated from North Central High School in 1944.
Frances worked at Geiger Air Depot west of Spokane after graduation, working in the tool crib during World War II. It was here that she met her future husband, Woodrow Shalz. They married April 15, 1945 and moved to a farm just north of Athol, Idaho, where they resided for 53 years. She became mother to four children, with one passing away at 2 1/2 years old in April of 1953.
For about 12 years during the 1950s and 1960s, Frances worked with her husband in the woods as a lady logger, of which she was one of only a few at that time. She was also a local restaurant cook until her retirement. She dearly loved her vegetable garden, flowers, farm life and her riding lawn mower. In 1998, they moved away from the farm to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, then Frances moved to Country Comfort, an assisted living home, in January of 2015, where she remained until shortly before her death.
Frances is survived by one brother, Vern (Sammie) Ritter of Oroville, Wash.; daughter, Nancy (Jim) Heuett of Rathdrum, Idaho; daughter, Teri Reynolds of Hayden, Idaho; son, Fred Shalz of Post Falls; step-daughter, Pat (Ed) Payne of Whitefish, Mont.; and step-son, Gene (Philomena) of Great Falls, Mont. She is also survived by five grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
We would like to thank George and Kimberlee Cicone of Country Comfort Assisted Living for the wonderful care in her last 3 1/2 years of life. Thank you also to Life Care at Post Falls for their help and great compassion.
Private funeral services have been held. Yates Funeral Home has been entrusted with the care of final arrangements. Please visit Frances’s online memorial at www.yatesfuneralhomes.com and sign her guestbook.