Fred Anthony

Fred Anthony, 84, passed away quietly and peacefully in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, at home and on his beloved Okanogan River property, which he had loved and where he had lived for 40 years.

Fred was born in Spokane (Hillyard), Washington, July 25, 1928, at his grandmother’s house. Fred was the fifth child of 10 born to James Fredrick Anthony and Jamima Ann Hodgen. Fred was a happy addition to his family and was readily accepted by his older brother and sisters.

Fred’s early days were spent on the “old homestead” in Kartar, Wash., riding horses, working in the garden, and sometimes just being a nuisance. He was the one who always livened up the party. Fred truly loved Kartar and often in his later years could be heard bragging that he was “raised in Kartar”. Those who didn’t know where Kartar was assumed that it was some exotic place in the world. And the way Fred felt about it, there was no place better in the world than Kartar Valley. Early on, the family moved to Nespelem so that the older kids could attend school there. Fred attended elementary, junior high, and high school in Nespelem, and graduated in 1947.

The following September, finding that he had nothing to do, Fred walked into Nespelem School on the first day of September and started another year of high school. His brother George, called it “Fred’s post graduate year of high school”. He was on the football and basketball teams plus took part in the plays and dramas during his high school years. As could be imagined he was the “star”.

In 1948 he joined the U.S. Army and served for almost four years, making several voyages to Turkey in ships loaded with horses and mules for the Turkish army. Fred was one of fifteen hundred troops who were provided only a rain coat and sunglasses on the sands of the island of the atoll Enewetok during the testing of two atom bombs.

After four years in the service, Fred returned to the Coulee Dam area where he worked in the timber as well as a farmhand on the Roy Kunz Ranch and the Raymond Green Ranch., Those jobs generated a lifestyle and friendships for life and the Greens became family to him .

Fred was driving school bus in Nespelem when Julie arrived in 1971 to be a kindergarten teacher. At age 46, after living what many people would call a full life already, Fred married Julie Lilenquist on August 3, 1974. Two years later, son Fredrick Scott was born and Ryan Craig followed a year and a half later. Fred became a “Mr. Mom” long before it was fashionable and during those years Fred and his two blonde haired boys milked cows, fed calves, chased chickens, went to the livestock market and swam the Okanogan River as Fred taught them life lessons and passed on to them his love of land and animals.

In fact he was such a “master teacher” both boys stayed out of school for an extra year to learn all that Fred had to teach them. After they finally started school, Fred became a bus driver for Omak School District. He loved his bus #13 and the kids he hauled to and from school each day, plus the friendships he formed in the bus garage, the school district and with families of his “riders”. He was awarded “Bus Driver of the Year” in about 1986. He retired, after having a heart attack in 1990. He spent the remaining years on his beloved property hobby farming, raising pheasants and exotic birds, and enjoying his family.

Fred is survived by his wife Julie, his two sons Scott of Omak and Ryan and wife Carrie of Ritzville, as well as a beloved 9-year-old grandson Brett Ryan Anthony and step-grandsons Dylan Stanley and Caleb Stanley also of Ritzville. He is also survived by his remaining brother George and wife Joan of Ramah, New Mexico.

He is preceded in death by his parents James and Jamima Anthony, and his siblings Albert, Loren, Eleanor Graves, Myrtle Rinker, Marjorie, Lila Eunice Johansen, William, and Jay.

A memorial service will be held at the Okanogan Agriplex, Okanogan Fairgrounds at 10:30 a.m., on Thursday, November 15, 2012, a lunch will follow at noon. Burial will be at 3 p.m., that afternoon at the Nespelem Cemetery on Nespelem Flat.

Online condolences may be shared with the family at http://www.legacymemorial.info

Legacy Memorial Funeral Home has been entrusted with caring for the family.