Norma Louise Kucera Evers

Norma Louise Kucera Evers (87) passed away on February 1, 2011, in Pullman, WA, from causes related to osteoporosis. A memorial service was held at the First Congregational Church of Dayton on Friday, February 4, at 1 p.m.

Norma was born in Spokane on January 6, 1924. She was the younger daughter of Louis and Vera Gray Kucera. Norma attended Spokane schools but spent summers with her grandparents, Jennie and Perry Gray, in Moscow, ID.

Norma was a gifted musician with absolute pitch. Her piano training began at the age of 2, when her parents discovered her picking out tunes on piano keys that she was not tall enough to see. She also studied voice and cello at Holy Names Academy, played first-string cello in the North Central High School Orchestra, and was a soloist in the All-Northwest Youth Orchestra.

After graduating from North Central in 1942, she attended Kinman Business School in Spokane, then worked as a stenographer and secretary first at the Davenport Hotel and then for Murphey, Favre, and Co.

She and Marvin D. Evers, the agriculture teacher in Dayton, WA, were married on May 29, 1948, in Coeur d'Alene, ID. She lived in Dayton for the next 58 years, except for a year in California, where her husband was stationed during the Korean War.

After returning to Dayton, Norma taught herself to play the organ and, for more than 50 years, was one of the organists at the Congregational Church. She continued to play even after losing most of her hearing, and she once told her daughters that deafness wasn't the tragedy for her that most people thought because she "always had music playing in her head." After moving to Pullman in 2006, she played the piano at Bishop Place Senior Living on Sunday mornings. Norma also enjoyed a variety of sports and activities. She played varsity tennis in high school and loved to swim and water ski. She had an intense appreciation of nature and particularly liked canoeing at Twin Lakes, WA, where she spent part of every summer for 60 years. She valued close friendships with fellow members of the Benevolentia Club in Dayton, to which she belonged for over 50 years. She loved gardening, cocker spaniels, and thunderstorms; played a blistering game of gin rummy; and every Sunday worked the New York Times crossword in pen.

Survivors include two daughters, Kathy ( and Doug) Meyer, Pullman, and Mary Sue Evers, Beaverton, OR; one sister, Patricia Mallery, Birmingham, AL; four grandchildren (Matthew Meyer, Vienna, Austria; Elizabeth Druffel, Coeur d'Alene, ID; Daniel Meyer, Missoula, MT; and Anne Ross, Spokane); and two nephews. Norma was preceded in death by her husband in 1994.

The family suggests that memorials be directed to the Congregational Church in Dayton, the Alzheimer's Association, or any charity concerned with the welfare of dogs. Kimball Funeral Home, Pullman, WA, is caring for the family. Online condolences may be sent to www.kimballfh.com.