Janet Catherine Shaffer

Janet Shaffer passed away peacefully from natural causes on November 16, 2023, just a few days after her 95th birthday. Janet was born in 1928, the roaring twenties, and came of age during two of the most momentous events of her generation, the Great Depression and WWII. She attended Eastern and was an Eagles fan her entire life, although she was more bookish than sporty. It was at Eastern where she met her husband Ron, and they both graduated with Bachelor degrees in education. She had been the editor of an award-winning newspaper in high school, and the professor who managed The Easterner newspaper immediately put her in an editor's role, one of the youngest students to ever reach that position so quickly. Throughout her life Janet was a great writer and communicator, which helped in her career and personal relationships, a quality she passed to her children.

Janet's first teaching position was in the town of Colville, WA, but soon traveled to Alaska with her husband, who was to be stationed in Fairbanks. Janet and Ron travelled up the Alcan Highway back in the day when it was a dirt cow path, to the army base in Fairbanks where Ron was the base DJ on the radio, sending love songs to Janet over the airways on frosty nights when they had to pour a bucket of boiling water into the toilet to melt the ice so it could be used. Their first son was born in Fairbanks in a state that was yet to fully enter the union, and the experience of her Alaska days stayed with Janet her entire life.

After returning to the lower 48 they settled into Spokane Valley and Janet taught at many elementary schools in the Central Valley School District. Eventually she moved into special education, helping those who had trouble helping themselves, a gift of charity and caring that was evident in her philosophy and approach to the wider world, she always cared for those in need and those causes that helped the planet be a better place for all humans and animals. Thousands of people knew Janet, having learned some of life's lessons in her classrooms, and her career was one of happiness and fulfillment, hardly a day passed in her life when someone somewhere approached her to tell her how much they enjoyed having her as their teacher.

Once settled into Spokane Valley she always lived at the edge of suburbia, near to the forest, on dirt streets that were still a few years from paving, as baby boomers built houses across the fields outside her windows. It was here that she gave birth to two more children, and raised a family during the tumultuous decades of the 60's and 70's.

Janet and Ron retired in the 1980's, but Janet kept teaching well into the 90's in part time positions, while taking long vacations to Victoria BC and spending entire summers at the family vacation home on Waitts Lake, near to where she had her first teaching position in Colville. The summers she spent at the Shaffer cabin were golden times for Janet and Ron, before the debilities of age made living in the wilderness more fraught with worry as trips to St. Josephs in Chewelah became more frequent as Ron's health deteriorated.

Janet lost her husband of 57 years in 2007, and she continued to volunteer in many leadership opportunities for someone enthusiastic and willing. Throughout life Janet had a famous sense of humor, a quick wit she inherited from her father, another famous humorist, well known for a good joke and hearty smile. Music permeated her life, and her children fondly recall the baby grand piano that sat in the living room, and the multitude of students she taught to play. Janet passed a life-long love of music in all its forms to her children.

Janet was preceded in death by her father, Clifford E. Dawe, and her mother, Lillian (Freeman) Dawe, as well as two of her children, Steven C. Shaffer and Pamela J. Shaffer. She is survived by her brother, Richard E. Dawe and son, Brad W. Shaffer. Janet leaves behind six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The Shaffer family cannot say enough good things about the retirement community of Holman Gardens, the staff and residents who made Janet's life one of joy. We also want to thank all of the paramedics and first responders who saved Janet's life again and again, allowing her to live well beyond the normal human span of years, particularly those at Fire Station No. 7 at 12th and Evergreen, those who tirelessly work to save the lives of others. We also thank Spokane Valley United Methodist Church, where Janet attended most of her adult life, either in person or in her last years virtually, singing in the choir, playing in the bell choir, and being a part of a community of people with shared values and beliefs, friends she had throughout life who cared about her and for her. And last to all of those who called Janet their friend, who enriched her life by knowing them. Thank you God, for Janet Shaffer. Janet's memorial service will be on December 9th, at 2pm, at Spokane Valley United Methodist Church, located at 115 North Raymond Road in Spokane Valley. Memorial gifts may be made to her church or to the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation.