Josephine Josie Shields

Josephine was born in a farm house on the northeastern corner of McDonald and Lateral C Road in Harrah, WA on July 31, 1929 to Martin and Caroline (Schmidt) Heilman. She was the oldest of seven children. Josephine helped her Dad on the farm hoeing beets, milking cows, and other chores. For a girl, she was quite a little farm hand. The only chores she ever talked about in the house were doing dishes while singing with her sisters. The only dish she could cook when she married Dad was fried potatoes and onions, in large amounts. But that changed. Mom’s kitchen always smelled of good things to eat. She made the best apple and huckleberry pies, fry bread and there were always cookies in the cookie jar. She could throw a meal together out of anything, and feed us all – When we were adults, she loved having us around unless they were going Polka Dancing, to the Accordion Delights, then they would just leave us at the house—how dare they! They went to 14 Polka Fests one year; we didn’t think they would ever be home. We had many fun times going to Mom and Dad’s. Mom loved us all, and would tell us when we left “you kids be careful now” but mostly our Dad, never forgetting him even with her dementia.

Our Family would like to thank “THE NEIGHBORHOOD” at Good Samaritan, who took such good care of our Mom, especially Diana (she runs a tight ship) and Jamie who we saw with Mom most often. You are all the greatest. THANK YOU! We love you Mom and we will see you in Heaven!

Josephine is survived by husband of 63 years, Francis J. Shields of Wapato; sons, Gerald (Lesli) Shields of Yakima, Kenneth (Lynda) Shields and Wayne (Holli) Shields both of Harrah; daughters, Beatrice (Vaughn) Lovell and Frances (Bruce) Dosher both of Harrah, and Diana (Dean) Huth of Wapato; brothers, Raymond Heilman and Melvin Heilman both of Toppenish, WA; sisters, Marjorie Gregson and Mary Derrey both of Yakima, WA, Geraldine Hinchey of Zillah, WA and Patricia Stegeman of Toppenish; 19 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her son, Richard Francis Shields. She is now with them in Heaven!

A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:00 a.m., Friday August 12, 2011 at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in Wapato, WA. Burial will be in the Reservation Community Memorial Park, Wapato, WA. For an online guest book and to share a memory of Josie, please visit www.MeM.com.