[Vision2020] [Spam 6.68] Re: A Legacy Returns to Rest

[Betsy Dickow]

Agreed!


-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of deb
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 8:41 PM
To: Moscow Cares; Moscow Vision 2020
Subject: [Spam 6.68] Re: [Vision2020] A Legacy Returns to Rest

Wonderful woman, tough as nails, and a leading light for liberals
everywhere! I hope I can be as feisty at 99!
Debi R-S

	----- Original Message ----- 
	From: Moscow Cares <mailto:moscowcares at moscow.com>  
	To: Moscow Vision 2020 <mailto:vision2020 at moscow.com>  
	Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2012 10:11 AM
	Subject: [Vision2020] A Legacy Returns to Rest

	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	Courtesy of today's (November 17, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

	-------------------------------------

	


	A legacy returns to rest

	Janet Fiske remembered for community, political involvement in
Moscow
	 

	50a7328029332.image.jpg

	 

	Janet Fiske lived all around the world, but made Moscow her home
more than 40 years ago, and cared for it much of her life. In death, she
will return here for her final rest.

	Fiske died Tuesday at Vashon Community Care in Washington surrounded
by family, just shy of her 100th birthday this week. Her remains will be
brought back to Moscow this spring to join her husband, John's, her son Fred
said.

	"She loved Moscow a lot. Her adopted home, I'd say, yes, indeed," he
said. "A couple of people have said, 'Well, you've got to do it in the 1912
Center.' ... Another friend said that half the town misses her, so maybe
half the town will show up."

	Fiske donated $50,000 toward the west wing expansion of the 1912
Center, which opened in 2008 with a room dedicated to her and her husband.
Center director Jenny Kostroff remembered there were some concessions
involved, since Fiske had wryly asked - at 95 - for renovations to herself.

	"I said I couldn't do a renovation on her, but I could do a
renovation on the building to support people for the next 100 years. She
said that was good," Kostroff said. "She showed the room while it was being
built to her kids and said, 'Here's your inheritance.' "

	Another promise she made Kostroff keep was to make sure there was
always room for the Moscow League of Women Voters, a group she joined when
she first came to the city in 1970. It was the same year Paradise Creek
flooded over, becoming one of many causes Fiske took on throughout the
years.

	"She was very active in cleaning up the creek and flood control, and
that was one of the league's local studies was paradise creek," said Joan
Klingler, membership chair for LWV. "... She just really welcomed people.
She was kind of our unofficial greeter for new members of the League of
Women Voters."

	She was even recognized by the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council for
the league fundraiser she created packing and selling the legumes, Klingler
said. She would add to them pressed flowers she picked up along her many
walks around the city, Fred said.

	"She called them Palouse book marks," he said. "... Largely through
her efforts, the city has really embraced Paradise Creek now."

	A staunch Democrat and advocate for the political process, Fiske was
able to vote in one more presidential election this year through an absentee
ballot in Washington before her death, Fred said.

	She became a president of sorts too, recently. Klingler said she
drafted an honorary past president certificate for Fiske to go with one from
the national league in honor of her upcoming birthday. Of all her roles in
LWV, Fred said she regretted never being president.

	"We got it to her just before she started to fail," he said, adding
it was nice to close that chapter of her life with the honor. "... One of
the things she said she most admired was leaders and having the courage to
take up the mantle of leadership."

	Longtime friend Mary Jo Hamilton remembers Fiske was always trying
to get her to join LWV with her, along with the Paradise Path Task Force and
the Moscow Recycling Board.

	"The league was very important to her, but it was all very important
to her," Hamilton said. "Janet was always very direct. She always said
exactly what she thought in any occasion. ... She was interested in
everything. She read voluminously and actually did quite a bit of writing."

	In 2006, Mayor Nancy Chaney declared April 22 Janet Fiske
Appreciation Day in honor of her community involvement and philanthropic
endeavours.

	"She was a reserved person. She had a terrific wit," Chaney said.
"For me, it was an honor when she kind of opened up to me and she wanted to
know me, for example, before supporting one of my campaigns, and I really
respected that about her. Once she embraced you as a friend, you were a
friend for keeps. I respected her for her integrity, she was a person who
didn't put on airs."

	Those who knew her spoke of Fiske's dry wit, her love of hosting and
attending parties, socializing with everyone and her resilience, which she
passed on to her husband, John, even when he was in poor health.

	"She wouldn't let him sit down in a chair and become an old man,"
Hamilton said. "... The world is not as elegant a place without John and
Janet. You have to put the two together, it's always been John and Janet."


	-------------------------------------

	Janet Fiske before the Moscow City Council on April 17, 2006
discussing rivers in cities and Paradise Creek . . .

	http://www.moscowcares.com/In_Memory/JanetFiske_041706.mp3
	 
	image.jpeg

	Rest well, Ms. Fiske.
	  
	Tom Hansen
	Moscow, Idaho
	 

	
________________________________


	

	=======================================================
	 List services made available by First Step Internet,
	 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
	               http://www.fsr.net
	          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
	=======================================================