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LaVeeda (Waits) Linnemeyer |
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November 12, 1920 ~ March 19, 2017 |
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March 30, 2017 |
LaVeeda (Waits) Linnemeyer, 96, passed away on
March 19, 2017, at the Boundary County Restorium
in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. A memorial service will
be held at 1 p.m. April 8 at United Methodist
Church in Bonners Ferry.
LaVeeda was born on November 12, 1920, in Farnum,
Nebraska. She was the second of six girls and
one brother born to Calista May and Fred Raymond
Waits.
She began her life in the sod house her
grandfather built on the 160 acre farm he
homesteaded in 1890. She said her favorite
memory of that sod house was the wild geraniums
blooming from the outsides of the house in the
springtime.
Eventually, they moved into a wooden house built
by her grandfather and father.
Five girls shared one bedroom with two beds.
Fights were not uncommon!
The family had a band and played at dances. One
night a young man came to the dance, asked her
to dance and then to marry him. That young man
was Walter Linnemeyer. They were married on May
19, 1938.
In 1969, they moved to Loveland, Colorado, where
LaVeeda learned to make draperies. When they
moved back to Bonners Ferry in 1972, she opened
her own drapery business in the basement of
their home. She made draperies for many of the
homes around Bonners Ferry. She was very proud
of her work.
She and Walter always hung the drapes because
she wanted to make sure every pleat was hanging
just right.
She said her biggest challenge was making the
heavy, velvet stage curtains for the old high
school auditorium stage.
They moved many times during their marriage
because LaVeeda loved to decorate houses. They
would buy a house, fix it up until nothing more
could be done, sell it and start all over again.
They were “flipping houses” before there was a
television show about it.
Walter died in 2007 and a year later LaVeeda
sold their home and eventually moved to the
Restorium.
LaVeeda was preceded in death by Walter, an
infant son, and a granddaughter, sisters LaVonne
Linnemeyer, LaVay Philips, and brother Teddy
Waits.
She is survived by daughters Wauneta (Dick)
Dawson, Nona Kaye (Bill) Clark, and Delores
(Rick) Rickena, five grandchildren, 11
great-grandchildren, 12 great-great
grandchildren, sisters Patsy Clark, Freda Rae
Wiseman, and Marilyn Farm, and many nieces,
nephews and friends. |
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