Flora Chezum

Flora was born in Eustis, Florida to Ervin and Blanche Bauer, the youngest of four children. Her mother died when she was just 10 months old and her father was not able to keep the family together. The children, Vena, Norma, Clyde and Flora all went to different families and orphanages and would not see each other again until adulthood. Flora was given to a family at church, Nathan and Buddy Smithwick, and at age five moved to Washington State with her new siblings, Jean, Shirley and Don. Nathan passed away in a farming accident and Buddy married Clyde Andrews who brought his three children to the family, LaDella, Dolly and Clyde. She would live with various siblings through the years and attended schools in Harrah, Seattle, Grandview and Prosser; Class of 1949. She kept lifelong, loving friends from those Greyhound and Mustang years. During this time she worked as a soda jerk and a telephone switchboard operator at the old Grandview Herald Building. Flora married Wayne Scott and followed him to military bases where he was stationed. Their daughter, Terry, was born at Letterman’s Army Hospital in Presidio, San Francisco in 1952. They later moved to Grandview and son, Alan, was born in Prosser in 1959. During these years she was a homemaker, worked in the fields on the farm and also worked at Prosser Pack. Always a hard worker, fastidious housekeeper in a drafty farmhouse across from a dusty beet field, and excellent old fashioned cook. She became a single Mom and continued to work hard, sometimes two jobs at a time to keep her daughter in prom dresses and son in athletic shoes. She worked as a bookkeeper at Prosser Pack, RH Smith Distributing and Northwest Rural Opportunities. She enjoyed attending Grandview school and sporting events during this time in the 60’s and 70’s. She married Cliff Chezum in 1977 and they moved to Olympia where they would spend most of their 42 years of married life together. They bought a motor home and traveled around the United States. Through the years they visited each of the 50 states and international traveling as well. She volunteered at St. Peters Hospital in Olympia for many years, in charge of the surgical patients’ families. In 2016 they moved to Yakima because Eastern Washington was calling her home. She enjoyed visiting with family, her lifelong friends and friends from Cliff’s Washington State Patrol years, gardening, gambling trips to Reno, and rooting for her Green Bay Packers. She loved the holidays and spending Christmas Day enjoying one of Flora’s meals, which she continued into her 80’s, was a memorable treat. She continued to attend Alan’s sporting events through the years, always his biggest fan. She was his helper at Farmer’s markets selling cherries and other produce, they were a team delivering food for Meals on Wheels, would go on drives around the Valley, and sometimes Alan would let her pick grapes and cut asparagus with him, which she loved. Flora was a spunky and feisty woman who loved to be active and enjoy life. She was strong, as she needed to be, because of her hard beginning to life, childhood years and her final years as her body and mind failed her. There is no cure for the type of dementia disease she had, but she continued to be strong, and to fight until the end. For those who knew and loved her, she is unforgettable and we are all better for having known her. Survived by her loving husband Cliff, children Terry and Alan, son-in-law Phil Klukas, grandchildren and great grandchildren Lisa (Bob, Michael, Abbie) Scott, Dan (Heidi), Ken (Mary, Hadley), Marty Klukas and family, her last remaining sibling Clyde Andrews of Othello, step-daughters Janice, Lauren, Susan and families, and her beloved nieces and nephews in the Meloy, McConnell, Smithwick and Golembiewski families. Preceded by her parents and siblings in the Bauer, Smithwick, McConnell, Meloy, Withers and Schilperoort families. Flora passed away at Fieldstone Memory Care, Yakima, Wa at age 88. Special thanks to their staff and Heartlinks Hospice Care for their compassionate care. Graveside services to be provided by Valley Hills Funeral Home, Yakima, with inurnment at Wapato Reservation Community Memorial Park on Nov 2nd at 11am. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Flora Chezum, please visit our flower store.