Obituary of Judith Mowery

Judith, 79, passed away, with her children by her side, on Thursday, September 26, 2019, after she had a massive stroke three days earlier.  Her children found her the morning after her stroke, and she was able to communicate with them and with her friends who visited before she passed.   

Judith was raised all over the U.S, with her father supervising the cement mixing plants for many of the hydroelectric dams built in Washington state, California, Montana and upstate New York.  She arrived in Kennewick, Washington, in senior high and graduated Kennewick High School class of ’58. She met John Mowery her senior year of high school, and they married the year following her graduation. They lived in Pullman while John finished his engineering degree at WSU, then spent a few years in Bremerton where John worked in the shipyard as an engineer, before returning to the Tri-Cities area.

An active camper, hiker and fisher, Judith enjoyed exploring the outdoors with John.  After nine years of trying, they had their first child, Eric, followed by their second child, Elaine, a few years later.  Judith and John raised their kids on a small farm outside of West Richland, teaching them to love the outdoors and nature by taking them camping all over the Northwest.

She was a talented artist, very active in the arts community, Allied Arts, in the 1960s and 70s, and was recognized with several art awards.  In addition to doing art, she was very hands-on and involved in her children’s elementary schooling, even once shoving a sheep into the van and bringing it to their 1st and 5th grade classes for show and tell. Her children have fond memories of the 70s with all sorts of fun art projects at home, Cub Scout adventures with her as den mother, Girl Scout adventures, playing in the garden, pool, and on the farm.

At 40, Judith was very proud of going to college and received her AA from Columbia Basin College in 1983, followed by her BA from Eastern Oregon University a few years later.  She then spent a decade working at several businesses, including her own marketing company that designed some of the wine labels for local wineries, and winning an award for the L’Ecole No. 41 schoolhouse label design. She worked at the Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau, Tri-Cities Economic Development Council, the Small Business Association, and taught business classes at Trend College for a few years. Her business stories inspired her daughter to major in business administration.

After successfully getting their kids out of the house all in one piece, and John retiring  from WPPSS #2 (aka Energy Northwest), in 1995 they packed up, sold the farm, and headed to Camano Island for five years where they were very active in repairing trails in the state parks and other outdoor activities.  She especially enjoyed the eagle watching and walking the state park loop often.

Then, looking for some more sunshine for John, it was off back to the east side of the Cascades to Wenatchee for five years. There she was active again as a Master Gardener and learning to plant for low-water gardening. They enjoyed lots of hiking and cross country skiing around Wenatchee and Leavenworth. Longing for more greenery again, they packed up and headed back to the west side of the Cascades to the tiny town of Rainer for five years, where they gardened on five acres of sparsely wooded land. Every place Judith and John lived could have easily been a spread for Sunset Magazine. They took basic yards of just grass and maybe a couple trees, and turned them into luscious gardens with all types of flowers, ground covers, trees, bushes, fire pits, water features and even a large pond with waterfall to replace the old swimming pool at the West Richland farm. She and John instilled a love of gardens in their children, inspiring Eric as a very talented lifelong gardener and Elaine with a green thumb of her own.

Judith lived the last ten years at Panorama in Lacey. After John’s death nine years ago, she took a trip to return to Alaska, a place she had already been to a handful of times with John, and stayed in a cabin near Mt McKinley to plan her path forward while it snowed around her. 

She turned her attention again to painting with mixed media acrylics, and wrote a fantasy novel trilogy (The Parallel Lives of Elizabeth Ann). She was active in the Panorama community, helping with ushering for movies and concerts, helping at the patio sales, going to dinner with friends, going on artsy day trips to Seattle for fun events, and celebrating with her “Rowdy Girls” once a month. She created the perfect little garden paradise yet again on her covered patio, and would often host happy hours or book club there. And she continued the almost daily walks that she and John used to do around the wildlife refuge nearby at Nisqually.

Her love of traveling continued after John’s death, and she took several cruises over the years: Hawaii, Asia, and river cruises through Europe and Russia. In addition to cruising, she loved her trips to Costa Rica, New Zealand and Canada. At 72, she loved zip lining through the rainforest canopy of Costa Rica with a big smile on her face. At 76, she visited her daughter in New Zealand for two months, and they had fun adventures driving around both the north and south islands for several weeks. After Judith flew home in November that year, her daughter missed her family more and more, and eventually returned home to Seattle the following summer to be closer to Judith and Eric. Judith’s last big adventure was a rail trip last fall across western Canada, seeing Whistler and Banff among other places again after many years.

Two years ago, she downsized to a condo, and enjoyed a top floor balcony she surrounded with clematis and other hummingbird favorites.  She was very appreciative of her quality of life and the hard work her husband put in to enable that financially. Both Judith and John promised their kids they would be organized around their deaths and they were.  Everything was in order, all wishes were known, and all arrangements were made years ago. Do your family or friends know what your wishes for end of life decisions are?  It makes things infinitely easier, so please tell them.

Those who knew Judith know what a force of nature she was.  A strong personality and quite a character, she will be dearly missed by her children. It has been lovely to meet her many friends at Panorama, as well as re-connect with her school friends from the class of ’58.  Her ashes will be placed with her husband’s, which are located by a great fishing spot somewhere in the Cascades.

On October 19, 2019, you are invited to enjoy the local wildlife refuge in celebration of our mom's life. Rain or shine, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, followed by a lunch hosted by her children, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Gallery room of the Seventeen51 Restaurant at Panorama in Lacey. Come to one or both.

NO FLOWERS, PLEASE.  In lieu of flowers, please support The Nature Conservancy, or just turn off your devices and go for a walk outside with your family.