Our dear and precious Momma/Grandma Alma F. Samsel, 94, went home to Jesus and joined her loving husband, Harold, Sunday, July 28, 2024, following a courageous battle with cancer.

Alma was born April 17, 1930, to Richard Melvin (Kelly) and Blair (Graham) Hill Roseborough at her grandparents’ home, William Reece and Lelah Graham, in Westlake, Idaho. She attended grade school in Westlake until moving to Winchester in 1940, where she graduated high school in 1948. Alma excelled in school and was the editor of the Winchester High School newspaper and also was valedictorian of her class.

After graduation in 1948, she went to work for the telephone company as an operator in Lewiston. She had been dating a very handsome man who was an older brother to her best friend Veta and had returned home from World War II. The love of her life, Harold Samsel, proposed by August of 1948 and she said yes. His proposal was not so romantic but very humorous, as she told it. He was head over heels in love with this beautiful red-headed living doll. He said, “I’m miserable without you so we either get married or this is it and there’s not going to be a divorce!” She was happy to say yes as she adored him and remained that way all the 73 years of their life together. Harold passed away in 2021 just a couple of months shy of his 100th birthday. She could hardly wait for the day when they would be together again in heaven. Thank you Jesus, they are now together again.

Their early years together were blissful and tough at the same time. He was working in the woods logging and they moved into a makeshift shack in the camp while they waited to build a home. There was no running water, no electricity and no road, only a train that came into the mountain camp one time a week to deliver the mail and whatever supplies were ordered the week before. As Alma would describe it, “I went back in time and lived like my mother did in O’Mill in the 1930s when I was a child.” Living in Westlake with her grandparents had taught her how to live without the modern conveniences. She found she had an advantage over many of the young ladies who moved to the camp that didn’t have this knowledge. She remarked how many of them didn’t make it and had to leave.

She worked very hard and was a prep cook in the camp cookhouse in the camp for that first year until she was blessed with her first baby, a beautiful baby girl, in December 1949. And then a second baby, a darling boy, in June 1951. It wasn’t until 1955 that she finally enjoyed the convenience afforded by electricity and indoor plumbing and at this time, in May, she had her last sweet baby girl that her big brother prayed would be a “little Lord Jesus.” It didn’t quite work out that way but she did become the “littlest angel.”

By 1959 Potlatch Corp. bought out the little sawmill called O’Mill and it was the end of the magical days in the mountains where many happy and precious memories were made. The family moved for a short time to Grand Coulee, Wash., where Harold worked at a sawmill.

In 1960 she moved with her little family to Lewiston, where she and Harold raised their children. Through good times and trials, she was the best momma and wife anyone could ask for and always got her strength from the Lord. Life wasn’t always easy for her but she had a way of making it look that way. All of her life her devotion to God and family was evident in everything that she did for her family and extended family.

She was a wonderful mother, sister, aunt, grandma and friend and never ending servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. She also was a fabulous homemaker, cook, baker and seamstress. She also sold Avon in the ’60s and ’70s and was an election board volunteer for many years. She was a beautiful example of a Christian woman. She testified for the Lord until she could no longer speak on Saturday, sharing the many dreams she had about Jesus speaking with her just before she passed. She was blessed by these dreams and so were all of us who were with her as she went to Jesus. We will all miss her so very much. She was loved by so many. We thank the Lord for the blessing of having her in our lives.

She was preceded in death by her parents and Harold’s parents, many aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews and cousins, her brothers, Robert Hill, and Kenneth “Kenny” Roseborough; sisters-in-law Doris Clovis, Gladys Crane, Veta Patton; brothers-in-law George Samsel, Morris Patton, Paul Boxleitner, David Crane, Merle Izatt and Curly Clovis; daughter-in-law Marlene Samsel; and son-in-law Duane “Buz” Sawyer. She is survived by her sisters Eugenia Jo “Jo” (Roseborough) Nolan, Kathy Hill Perry, Bobbi Hill Hupf, her brother Loran Roseborough, sister-in-law Lois Boxleitner; her children, Denise Liedkie, Duane Samsel (Carol) and Darla Grimm; five grandchildren and spouses, six step-grandchildren and spouses, eight great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren; also many step-grand, great-grandchildren and step-great-great-grandchildren and many others who loved her and affectionately called her “Grandma.”

Alma’s family would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Hospice program and the nurses, Anne and Christine, also the family nurses and caregivers, granddaughter Shalie Cline, daughter Denise Liedkie, daughter Darla Grimm and nieces Karen DeSeve and Wendy Fishburne who made it possible for her to remain with loved ones in her daughter’s home during her illness. It meant so much to her and the entire family.

A memorial service and celebration of her life will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 9, at Malcom’s Brower-Wann Funeral Home, 1711 18th Ave., Lewiston. There will be a reception following the memorial service at Confluence Church, 1449 Highland Ave., Clarkston. A graveside service for family will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 10, in Kamiah. Both services will be live streamed at malcomsfuneralhome.com.

 

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Friday, August 9, 11:00 AM

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Malcom's Brower-Wann Funeral Home
1711 18th Street
Lewiston, ID 83501

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