Diane Elaine Pape

Born Tacoma WA 3/28/1941

To Leonard and Elaine (Gallear) Weisdepp deceased

sister to Gary Weisdepp deceased

She was a 3rd generation resident of Thurston county WA. Raised at the Weyehauser Vail logging camp outside of Rainier WA.

Survived by her husband of 58 years Robert Pape , son Don (Jody) Pape , daughter Debbie (Joe) Olayvar and, son Doug Pape. Also survived by Don and Judy’s blended family, grandchildren Geri(James) Halverson , Jeff Pape , Nicole Herrold, and Jessie Hartman. Debbie and Joes blended family, grandchildren Lee (Veronica) Olayvar, Ian (Michaela) Olayvar, and Abi (Eliazar) Sandoval. She is also survived by Geri and James Halverson’s blended family of 7 great grandchildren, Alexandria, Jasmine, Lillyanne, Wyatt, Nickolas, Cedric Montano and Zaiden Montano, Ian and Michaela’s 2 great granddaughters, Ellyana and Arya, and Abi and Eliazars great grandson, Sebastian.

Raised at the Weyehauser Vail logging camp outside of Rainier WA . She was the oldest granddaughter on both sides of her family and spent lots of time with her extended family throughout her life. Mom and her family would spend a lot of time camping, and her cousin Mike Coe would join them. She would babysit for her cousins Jane, Audrey and Suzanne Eide while their parents Lyla and Russ Eide were out of town. The love of the mountains, oceans and all the wide open spaces in between has been passed down in in our family from those who came before us. Mom and all of her family enjoyed hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, swimming, and waterskiing.

In school Mom participated in the Rainbow girls. Achieving the office of worthy adviser and attending the national conference held at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane WA. The most significant thing she would tell about the conference is that she got to slide down the banisters in the Davenport.

She was the Valedictorian of Rainier High Schools class of 1959. She went on to attend Western Washington College for 1 year with the intention of becoming a high school science teacher.

Having known Robert Pape since 3rd grade at Rainier, Diane and Robert Pape were married Oct 28 1960. Mom became a local telephone operator shortly after her marriage then had to quit when she was expecting her first child Don (born September 11, 1961) because expectant mothers couldn’t remain in the work place even though they were never seen by the public.

Through out Moms life she fished with her family and Dad. She was even known to hunt grouse and dig for razor clams. She and Dad even passed on fishing and clam digging to us kids and grandkids. Mom even would hold down the camp during deer season and loved to ride around in the truck with Dad during deer season and listen to the world series while Dad would be out of the truck hunting close to the road.

Dad and Mom moved to a small neighborhood off of Fones Rd in Olympia. On Craig Rd there were 8 or so houses and each were occupied by young families like ours. All the young wives were expecting around the same times and our families stayed in contact. When our families moved out of that little neighborhood we all still got together with lots of play dates at each other’s new homes. Mom always made sure there were other kids around for us to play with, cousins (10 Pape cousins in Thurston county, 6 that were in the Tumwater school district) and Ellen Ellis and her 4 boys and our neighbor hood kids Judy ( life long friend) and Jon Smith . I’m not sure if it was for our development or all of our mom’s sanity.

After we were all in school Mom went to work for the Tumwater school District, first at Michael T. Simmons as a playground assistant, lunch ticket lady and bus monitor. She would always notice when someone was absent or if someone needed help learning how to play 4 square or jump rope. When she moved over to Pete G Schmidt she worked in the Kindergarten class rooms and Title One reading and some playground duties. Our mom always built a strong bond with her co-workers and students . I was just reminded of one story sent to me by the mother of a student. She made all the older kids wait until the end of the year to learn what her first name was.

Each of us kids were active in many extra curricular activities. Before any of us drove she could be found with a carload of kids carpooling to some event of another. Mom was a Cub Scout den mother, girl scout campout chaperone , softball tournament bracket manager because I could never follow along. Mom could be found in attendance at many of our sporting events baseball, softball, soccer, wrestling, cross country, volleyball and track. And then there were the band and choir concert she was always there.

As a family we had many adventures. We traveled to eastern British Columbia several times to fish. We vacationed in Eastern Washington and visited Rocky Reach Dam, and Grand Coulee Dam. We went to school and told what we did over the summer. Our Dam vacation. Our big vacation was all the way down the California Coast and all the attractions between here and there . We hit Sea lion Caves, Trees of Mystery, Swiss Colony Winery , San Francisco, of course a trip to Disney and the San Diego Zoo and several Missions. We would even spend time camping near Dads projects sites in the summer, Friday Creek, Long beach, Humptulips, Shafer State park just to name a few.

Camping was always a really big part of Moms life . Memorial weekend at the gravel pit near Eatonville, Spirit Lake with the Ashenbrenner family, Klaloche , Twano , Belfair , just a landing out on Weyerhaeuser land. Then later on Tower Rock with Kids and grandkids and some of the great grands . Cape Disappointment with lots friends and family and in later years our yearly kite festival trips to Pacific beach the weekend after Labor Day.

Mom and Dad started to take the first set of Grand kids camping and fishing during their spring break from school. After the older Grand kids moved to Colorado the next set would go for a week to Concunully the week after school got out to fish. Creating very special memories for all.

After Mom retired she continued to go with Dad to project site even spent one summer at the Klickitat fish Hatchery and her parents even joined them. They went to visit Don’s family several times in Colorado and even drove Dads 1934 Ford down once stopping in New Mexico to visit Her Cousin Mike Coe on the way, so they could take the car to a Colorado car show . Mom was always up for seeing all the local points of interest were ever she went . They made 2 trips to North Dakota to visit where Dad and his family moved here from. The first trip my family took the train out and joined them outside of Minot. This was Dads first trip back since his family left there in 1948. They went again a few years later with Dads siblings. Many great memories.

Mom was an avid sports fan. Always a Seahawks fan. During football season she would wear her Seahawk wardrobe on Blue Friday and Game Day. She kept track of player stats , team standing etc. On game day “Go Hawkes” could be heard often from her while she watched the game.

Until Moms mobility became too difficult for her to get in and out of Dads car they could be found at many local car shows with their life long friends and many friends they met along the way. And up until just about a month before she died she could still be found having breakfast at the Casino on Tuesdays and Doug’s in Yelm on Fridays for dinner.

Our Mom raised us with humor, strength, intellect, determination and grace. Despite grieving the loss of her only sibling Gary Weisdepp when she was a young mother, and then while retired, took care of her own mother after she suffered a stroke and then losing her own independence, she made each of us feel special and important. I can think of no better example on what it means to be a mother and grandmother.