Delores S. Schmadeka

3/15/1933 — 9/30/2020

Send a Condolence

Delores Stacy Schmadeka passed away Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020, in Lewiston.

Delores was born March 15, 1933, to Charles W. and Ione Bigelow Stacy in a one-room house at Hollywood, 7 miles from Pierce. When she was 6, Delores dropped out of school for the first time to be home-schooled when the family moved into a two-room log house on Rhodes Creek, 2½ miles from Pierce. The amenities were an outhouse and running water. Of course, the water was in the creek several hundred yards away.

The next year, she was deemed old enough to walk by herself through the woods to school. When she was in fourth grade, her brother, Elwood, joined her on the long trek, sometimes in snow as deep as 6 feet. The family finally moved to Pierce when she was in seventh grade.

When she was 16, she once more dropped out of school for an early marriage to Dallas Marshall and motherhood. They lived in Headquarters for eight years. When her younger son started school in 1958, she hopped onto the school bus with her two boys and returned to Pierce High School to complete her senior year, graduating with honors in 1959.

That fall, she entered Lewis-Clark Normal School in Lewiston (now Lewis-Clark State College) for two years before transferring to the University of Idaho, where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in education in 1963.

She later attended Oregon State University on a federal geography fellowship, graduating with a M.A. in social science in 1967. She also attended the University of Hawaii summer school sessions in 1974 and 1976.

While in Pierce, she served as Nobel Grand of Gold Nugget Rebekah Lodge No. 119 and was adviser of the Theta Rho club. As an educator, she was a member of LEA (Lewiston Education Association), I(Idaho)EA and N(National)EA. She was treasurer of LEA and worked on numerous committees.

Delores taught at Sacajawea Junior High School in Lewiston for three years before going to Oregon State University. She then taught at Cut Bank, Mont., for two years. In 1969, she returned to Sacajawea for another 26 years of teaching seventh grade English and social studies. Delores retired in 1995.

Since then, she has enjoyed the good life. Reading, antiquing, time with family and friends, and traveling with her husband filled her golden years, which she sometimes referred to as “the brass years.” Delores was instrumental in gathering former Pierce classmates for travel, parties, lunches and fond memories. She especially loved the Christmas season when she and her husband hosted an annual Christmas party for her “old” Pierce classmates and a family “soup party.”

She wrote and self-published “Whatever Happened to the Kids from Pierce” and “Love, Chrissie” which are the fictionalized truth of life in Pierce in the ’40s and ’50s. She also had several articles published in magazines.

In May 1977, she married William H. Schmadeka, who survives her at the family home. Delores is also survived by a son, Randolph Marshall, and his wife, Jackie, of Green Acres; brother Elwood Stacy and his wife, Jean, of Weippe; sister-in-law Mona Stacy, of Wenden, Ariz.; first daughter-in-law, Nina Markow, and her husband, Lorin, of Lewiston; four grandchildren, Rodney Marshall, and his wife, Kristy, Dayna Marshall Watson and her husband, Jerry, Andrew Marshall and Amy Marshall, all of Spokane; four great-granddaughters and one great-grandson. She is also survived by three stepdaughters, Cerie Thoren and partner Joann Schmid, of Tenino, Wash., Carlynne Gehring and her husband, Doug, of Spokane, Charlotte Hoffman and partner Paul Water, of Potlatch; three stepgrandchildren; and three step-great-grandchildren; four nieces and three nephews and their families.

She was preceded in death by her son, Rodney Marshall; her parents, Chas W. and Ione (Micky) Stacy; and a brother, Leland Stacy.

Delores often reminded her grandchildren and nieces to remember, “Life is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the adventures along life’s road.” She did.

Memorial donations may be made to Community Action Partnership Food Bank, 124 New Sixth St., Lewiston.

A family graveside service will be held at the Pierce Cemetery in Pierce, where she will be laid to rest beside her son, Rodney Marshall, who died in 1968, and near her dear friend, June Hohnstein.

Print Obituary Send a Condolence Back to Listings