Shirley Coleman, who died Saturday, June 24, 2017, was a woman of many parts. With her husband, Bob, she built Coleman Oil. She served on the Idaho Governor's Task Force on Education and for many years was a mainstay in Lewiston's League of Women Voters. She helped evaluate programming for the Public Broadcasting System. And she was a lifelong student of nature.
Her grandson, Ian Coleman, describes her this way: "Grandma Shirley was funny, smart and tough. Her role as the matriarch bounced between traditional and not. While she kept an ever-full candy bowl stocked with Werther's Original or Butterfinger miniatures, she also ran the wood splitter with authority every fall" in the woods surrounding their cabin in Anatone.
Shirley's parents were married in the old Methodist Church that later served as Lewiston's Civic Theatre. Born on March 28, 1928, in Lewiston, she spent her growing-up years in communities scattered across the Northwest, where her dad, who traveled where the work was, took jobs as a miner, a fisherman and in various construction projects, including the old Washington Water Power Dam across from what is now Clearwater Paper. With her sister, Willa, Shirley learned to adapt to the moves and to a range of Depression-era uncertainties.
By the time she enrolled at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Shirley had attended 16 different schools. At Whitman she majored in political science, excelled in the classroom and graduated near the top of her class. After graduating in 1949, she dreamed of studying the law and becoming an attorney. But those plans and her future changed when she met Bob Coleman at Whitman and they talked of life and a family together.
Their wedding ceremony, on July 30, 1950, in Spokane, was the first day of nearly 67 years of married life.
The couple settled in Spokane, where they spent their first two years of married life and where Bob kept the books for a construction company owned by Shirley's father. Their daughter, Lynne, was born there in 1951.
The family left Spokane for Craigmont in 1953, when an opportunity to be a distributor for Standard Oil Co. of California (now Chevron) was an opportunity too enticing for the couple to resist. As a bonus, the move brought Shirley back to the Camas Prairie and near her mother's family, the Tautfests. Through the years there were many Tautfest reunions in which the family got involved. Their son, Bob Jr., was born in Cottonwood in 1954.
They moved again in 1959, when an offer from Standard Oil to manage the distributorship in Lewiston brought them to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley. Taking over that distributorship was no small challenge, and the entire Coleman family was involved with what was to become Coleman Oil. Bob Jr. remembers countertops in their home basement filled with monthly statements that the family sorted, sealed and mailed. Shirley, co-owner of Coleman Oil, wore many hats as the company grew - credit manager, chief bookkeeper and co-visionary.
As with her husband Bob Sr., there was more to her than just the business. Much more. Shirley was active in the Lewiston chapter of the League of Women Voters - "She wanted to convince people of the need to read, understand the issues and vote," Lynne says. She was appointed to the Governor's State Task Force for Education. And, with Bob Sr., she established the Fred and Katie Tautfest Scholarship at Lewis-Clark State College, named for her grandparents.
Then there was the cabin in the woods near Anatone at the foot of Big Butte, where Shirley and Bob nurtured nature and spent countless weekends. Granddaughter Bethany Coleman-Fire remembers being with Shirley at the cabin, where she often "walked the meadows while grandma taught me the name and uses of plants and flowers. There, an Indian paintbrush; boil the yarrow to make a tea that soothes; apply lamb's ear for a bandage; a morel and a wild strawberry are always worth the trouble."
Adds grandson Ian, "Grandma was an encyclopedia when it came to plants; she's the reason I can spot a lady slipper or an Indian paintbrush."
For granddaughter Kaitlin, there also is the memory of Shirley's nourishment. "Grandma nourished the soul with stories, traditions and artifacts from the past that are meant to be remembered and carried forward. She took care to tell us where each plant came from, each piece of crystal, each toy, each recipe. There is meaning and connection to people and places that likely would have faded without her. She recently bestowed upon us beautiful, white peonies that came from our great-grandmother, her mother. And now, Grandma becomes a part of the stories that we will carry forward."
A memorial service celebrating the lives of Bob and Shirley Coleman will be held at noon Saturday at Malcom's Brower-Wann Funeral Home, 1711 18th St., Lewiston
In lieu of flowers, family and friends are encouraged to make a donation to the LCSC Foundation, Fred and Katie Tautfest Scholarship Endowment. Checks can be mailed to the LCSC Foundation, 500 Eighth Ave., Lewiston, ID 83501.
Service Information
- Date & Time
- Saturday, July 1, 12:00 PM
- Location
-
Malcom's Brower-Wann Funeral Home
1711 18th Street
Lewiston, ID 83501
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