Reita Lou Wenberg
Reita Lou Wenberg, 81 years old, passed away peacefully on January 12, 2017 due to complications of advanced dementia.
Reita was born in Lead, South Dakota on May 24, 1935 to William K. and Ermangard L. Leman and spent her early years there playing with little sister, Janet, on their farm in Roubaix. Her family moved to Seattle, WA when Reita was four to open Leman Motel on 1st Avenue South, now Highway 99. She attended Foster and Highline High Schools while growing up. She was a fun-loving, charismatic young person with a strong talent for art and was given a chance to design stage sets in high school, which she continued to do throughout her life for many large scale religious and local theater productions.
She majored in Art at Washington State College (before it was called WSU) where she trained in fashion design, among other subjects, later becoming an avid and prolific seamstress. She loved the college life, serving as President of her Sorority and making many life-long friends. Following college, she briefly worked as a technical drafter for her father and eventually for Boeing, where she met her future husband, Earl Wenberg.
In 1956, Reita and Earl married, started a family raising two daughters and found they enjoyed working on projects together, including building a speed boat and their beloved little house in the woods in Maple Valley, WA. With a love for travel, the family enjoyed many happy camping and “road” trips in the U.S. and Canada. Reita continued her love of travel in later life and visited a number of countries before she became ill.
Music was a big part of family life where Reita sang and Earl and Blythe played
the guitar. Always an enthusiastic Social Director, Reita loved planning big parties and events, “musicales” and field trips for her daughters and friends. She also had a love for animals, enjoying the company of many pets including her favorite kitties, Benjy and Baby Kitty, as well as Bruce, the family’s beautiful tricolor collie.
With the birth of her only grandchild, Ian, she was very involved in his life and was a strong advocate in encouraging him to follow his passions and talents. In her later years, Reita worked with her Maple Valley neighbors to protect nearby woodlands against development. Eventually her perseverance and tenacity paid off convincing King County to establish a park instead of an environmentally invasive housing project, all of which was captured with a front-page photo and article in the local Voice of the Valley newspaper. Her mercenary and zealous efforts earned her the title “Grandma with a spray can.”
Reita is survived by her two daughters; Blythe Ferrel and Lynne Wenberg-Davidson, their husbands’ Pat Ferrel and Doug Davidson, respectively, and her beloved grandson, Ian Graves. She will be so missed.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to The Dementia Society of America in Reita’s honor.