Judith Rivers
Judith Frances Rivers was born in Seattle in 1943, the only child of Frances McFerran and Charles Douglas. She graduated Roosevelt High School in Seattle and attended University of Puget Sound. In 1965, she had a summer job at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe where she met her first husband, Russell West. Russell Jr. and Mary Frances, her children, soon followed. After her divorce, Judy returned to her hometown, Seattle, where she lived for the remainder of her life. In Seattle, she met her third husband, William Rivers, but that marriage also ended in divorce. Judy died on January 17, 2022.
Judy worked in many customer service fields, often engaging her sparkling personality to help customers find solutions to unmet needs. Judy was a well known talker and story-teller; all who met her became enchanted by her tales. Judy was an avid reader, a trait inherited by her children, her granddaughter, and – we expect – her great-granddaughters. Judy had the capacity to turn strangers into friends and chosen family who must now share her loss with each others support. Judy lived her last years in the supportive care provided by Providence Mount Saint Vincent in West Seattle.
In addition to many friends and cousins and two cherished cats Belle and Bleu, Judy is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Russell West Jr and Marie Southwell; her daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Dennis White; her granddaughter and husband, Christa and Jason Gullidge; and her four great-grandaughters: Shaylene, Kelly, Violet, and Frances, born just last November but who met her great-grandma at her christening.
Because Judy enjoyed laughing and learning across the generations and across cultures, the family suggests that in lieu of flowers, friends please send donations to either the Intergenerational Learning Center at Providence Mount Saint Vincent, , or to the Irish Heritage Club of Seattle, https://irishclub.org/.
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