Obituary: Peterson, Phyllis Lorraine (Palmquist, Davidson)
Age 90
- I John 5:4 Phyllis Peterson met her Eternal Victory on Friday, October 16, 2015 after a long life of mothering, nursing, teaching, and serving all who were so blessed as to know her.
She served family, she served friends, and she served the Lord throughout all ninety of her years on this earth.
She served without demand, without reward, and without complaint, but rather with compassion, with conviction, with concern, and with the loving grace our Lord commanded us to give one another.
She greeted one and all with a loving smile, entertained conversations on any subject, and hummed classical tunes to herself as she went about her business.
All this she did without cease up unto the very last hour of her life, when she passed away peacefully in her sleep.
Phyllis was born unto parents Iver George and Frances Palmquist in Colville, Washington, on November 17th, 1924.
Delivered by a midwife, Phyllis miraculously survived being born two months premature.
George and Frances raised Phyllis in their home in Valley, WA.
Three years later, the family moved to Spokane, where Phyllis grew up.
In 1942, Phyllis was the Lilac Princess for Rogers High School.
The Spokane Lilac Festival coronation dinner was held in the Marie Antoinette Ballroom at the Davenport Hotel that year.
In 1943, Phyllis joined the US Nurse Cadet Corps.
She graduated from nurse’s training three years later and worked as a registered nurse, serving many an ailing patient, until her retirement in 1990.
While in nurse’s training in 1943, Phyllis met a Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot at the USO building in downtown Spokane.
The pilot’s name was Bernard Davidson.
Bernie was visiting from Calgary, Alberta just prior to being shipped off to Europe to join the Allied Forces.
Three years later, Phyllis boarded the vacation liner Lurline in San Francisco and traveled to New Zealand, where she married her sweetheart pilot in his own country.
Six years later, Phyllis and Bernie moved to Spokane, where they raised their four daughters.
In the late 1960s, Phyllis went to work at the Mental Health Clinic in downtown Spokane, counseling children and families.
In 1973, Phyllis went back to work as a registered nurse, serving as the Director of Nursing at Valley View Convalescent Center in Spokane Valley for three years.
In 1975, Phyllis earned a two-year degree in Nursing Administration.
Phyllis spent the last five years of her nursing career working as a home health nurse serving in rural communities north of Spokane.
In 1978, Phyllis and Bernie built their dream house in the wooded hills of Chattaroy, WA, where they retreated from city life and lived on into their retirement years, and on until Bernie’s passing in 1996.
In 1997, Phyllis married Arnold Peterson, also recently widowed.
Phyllis and Arnie enjoyed many adventures together in their golden years.
Their travels together included trips to Sedona, Arizona, the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Fairmont Hot Springs in Canada, and Seattle, WA on numerous occasions.
They enjoyed many milkshakes together while living the condominium life on Argonne Lane in Spokane Valley throughout the last eighteen years.
Phyllis championed the cause of good health all her life.
After years of exhaustive exploration of nursing, Phyllis took up the study of holistic and alternative medicine, nutrition, whole foods, the macrobiotic diet, vitamin and mineral supplements, reflexology, iridology, meditation, herbal remedies, and daily exercise.
For Phyllis, a body of water within eyesight meant a swim was required.
Everyone who knows Phyllis recalls her love of the Pacific Northwest wilderness, her long walks in the woods, her appreciation for the lakes, the rivers, and the hills, and most especially: her search for huckleberries.
Looking for God in all, Phyllis embraced the teachings of all religions.
Not content to settle for any orthodoxy, Phyllis spent her life studying and exploring passionately any and all spiritual concepts going beyond the world’s religions and going above common human understanding.
She discovered higher planes of existence that the rest of us know not of.
While most onlookers were left scratching their heads, this discovery brought Phyllis to the life of peace, harmony, and tranquility that the rest of us only dream of.
Throughout the last thirty years of her life, Phyllis dedicated all of her spiritual study to the teachings of Church Universal and Triumphant.
Phyllis was preceded in death by her husband Bernard Davidson and her sister Lillian Bergstedt.
She is survived by her second husband Arnold Peterson, her sister JoAnne McMath, her daughter Jan Ryan, her daughter Dawn Hall, her daughter Alison Davidson, her daughter Lori Davidson, her five grandchildren, and her eleven great-grandchildren.
Memorial services for Phyllis are being held at Orchard Crest Retirement Community, Spokane Valley, WA, on Tuesday, October 20th, at 1pm.
509-928-2222.