Mae VanDerPas

Mae VanDerPas passed away peacefully in Sandpoint, Idaho, at her home in Snug Harbor on June 20 2006.

Visitation will be at Coffelt Funeral Service at 109 North Division in Sandpoint, Idaho, between noon and 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 28, 2006. Funeral services will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 29, 2006, at the First Lutheran Church, 526 5. Olive Ave. in Sandpoint, Idaho, with Chaplin Paul Graves and Pastor Dave Olson officiating. Internment will be held at Pinecrest Memorial Park Cemetery.

Mae was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, on May 2, 1912, on Staff Road to Cornelius (Ed) and Maude Davis. Mae was a pioneer of the Sandpoint community for 94 years.

Mae graduated from Ponderay School and then lived with her father and brothers in the Gold Creek and Grouse Creek area. She married Alex T. Russell in 1930 and they had six children together. They raised their children north of town on Highway 95. She was employed at the IGA and Don's Drive in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1968 Mae moved to Snug Harbor.

She married Pete VanDerPas in 1973 and they lived a very happy life together for 25 years. They enjoyed living "at the river," hosting annual family reunions, snowmobiling, and traveling. They were always the center of family activities.

Mae enjoyed family first then gardening, cooking, crocheting, pinochle, and huckleberry pickin'. She especially enjoyed old time music that began with the fiddling and banjo playing by her father "Hard Luck" Davis. She loved her dog Toby.

She passed her love of tradition, nature and celebration of birthdays and holidays to her children and entire family. She had many close friends, young and old of many walks of life throughout Bonner County. Her door was always open to neighbors and friends.

Mae is survived by her six children, Bonnie (Russell) Boettger of Tacoma, Wash., Jim Russell of Rockville, Md., A. Ross Russell of Sandpoint, John Russell of Sandpoint, Vivian (Russell) Hooper of Boise, and Dave Russell, Sagle, Idaho; 11 grandchildren, Dan, Ken and Rod Boettger, Jim, Ross A., Rick, Chad, and Ammie Russell, Michelle Booth, John Ammerman and Brian Anderson; 10 great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter.

Four family members were honored to be named after Mae: Helen Mae, Debra Mae, Ammie Mae and Jenna Mae.

Preceding her in death were her parents, three brothers, two sisters, and a granddaughter.

In lieu of flowers donations in Mae's name may be made to Bonner Community Hospice, P.O. Box 1448, Sandpoint, Idaho 83864.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted to the care of Coffelt Funeral Service of Sandpoint.

Mae and Pete were inspired to marry and live by a poem written by Edgar A. Guest, "Couldn't Be Done."

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,

But he with a chuckle replied,

That "maybe it couldn't" but he would be one

Who wouldn't say so till he tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

On his face. If he worried, he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn't be done, and he did it.

Mae never believed it couldn't be done.