KATHERINE LUCILLE SCHILE
March 29, 1923 ˜ April 13, 2019
Katherine Lucille Schile, known to her family and friends as Lucille, died peacefully at her home in Vancouver, Washington on April 13, 2019 at the age of 96. She was born Katherine Lucille Westby on March 29th, 1923, in Aberdeen, South Dakota, the youngest child of Alveda and Harold Westby. She attended a one room school house with her older sister Margaret in Gem Township.
She graduated after 8 years and then attended Aberdeen High School where she was Editor in Chief of her nationally award winning high school newspaper. She graduated in May of 1940 from high school and went on to attend Northern State Teachers College in Aberdeen, where she graduated with a degree in English and a minor in Business in 1944.
She worked briefly at the Kaiser Shipyards in Vancouver, Washington and also taught school for a year in Minneota, Minnesota. She went on to teach at the High School of Commerce, now Cleveland High School, in Portland in 1947. She then taught school in Maryville, Montana in the Bitteroot Valley at the end of the 1940’s.
Lucille married Cornelius Schile, a recent graduate of the University of Montana Law School, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on May 29, 1950. They roamed the west together living in Salt Lake, Utah; Boise, Idaho; Butte, Montana; and Fairbanks, Alaska, before coming back to Vancouver in 1955. They moved to Montana again where they lived in Troy, Libby and Rygate before returning to Vancouver for the final time in 1963. Lucille, after being at home with her four children until they were all in school, returned to the classroom and taught English at Columbia River High School before settling down to do a 18-year stint at Jason Lee Junior High as an English and typing teacher. She retired in 1984.
One of her son’s friends said of her that she had an elephant ear for fractured English. Grammar was never to be taken lightly. She was not shy about correcting and educating on the proper use of English at every opportunity. She didn’t do this to be a scold but to enforce her deeply held conviction that one’s ability to speak or write clearly and succinctly was important. She was a great conversationalist and listener, never one to talk about herself. Fancy vacations, fancy cars and big homes held little interest for her, but her ability to read a good book, see a good play and most of all, connect and communicate with a stranger, friend or family member on just about any topic under the sun, she believed to be one of the best uses of her time. She was living proof of her favorite poet, William Woodsworth’s statement that the best part of a good persons life were those little unremembered acts of kindness and of love.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her brothers, Herbert Westby and Mort Westby; her sister, Margaret Benson; her daughter, Margaret Allen Schile; her son, John Schile; and her husband, Cornelius Schile.
Lucille is survived by her sons, Phillip Schile, Kurt Schile and Gregg Schile; as well has her three grandsons, two granddaughters and one great-grandson.
A funeral Mass will be held at St. Joseph Catholic Church on May 6, 2019 at 10:00 a.m.
Please sign her guest book @ www.columbian.com/obits
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
2 Entries
Condolences to Phil Kurt Gregg and Schile grandchildren.
The Cochran boys, Burton, Hale, Richardson, Gilbert, Schrober, England, Simmons, Renfro, Stickel, Watson, Larson, Campbell, Degen, Witkowski, Munson, Lipplegoose, Ness, Jones, Green, Choquette, Moriarity, Haynes, Westby and other Hudson's Bay grads were pals with Mr and Mrs Schile's boys: John Phil Kurt and Gregg. Had some great times! Mr and Mrs Schile were awesome as a second set of parents. Always so very cool.
God's peace Margaret, John, Mr and Mrs Schile
Respectfully,
Kenny and Danny Cochran
Kenny and Danny Cochran
May 6, 2019
She made the "Best" blueberry pies!
Bruce Adams
April 29, 2019
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