Rosemary Keller

1922 - 2011

Rosemary was born the youngest of six children to Louis and Margret Detrick Holderreed in Potlatch, Idaho on the 21st of March, 1922.  Two years later, the family moved west across the Cascade Mountains to Burlington, Washington, and in 1929 to Oakville, Washington, where Louis and Margret bought a small farm.  Rosemary grew up picking strawberries with her brothers and sisters.  In high school she also worked in the general store.  She was the valedictorian of her graduating class in 1939.  Rosemary attended Linfield College from 1939-1943, studying botany and earning a B.A. in Education.  Following two years in the first of many teaching jobs in the public schools, she entered Brethren Voluntary Service (BVS) as the secretary to the Director in Elgin, Illinois, and was the first female volunteer assigned to the Illinois State Mental Hospital.  In 1947 she attended a BVS training in New Windsor, Maryland where she met her future husband Chester Z. Kelle
 r.  In 1948 she accepted a BVS position at the Hillcrest boarding school for African children in Jos, Nigeria. She rejoined her family in Twin Falls, Idaho in 1950 and taught 2nd grade at Hansen, south of Twin Falls, until June 1952, when she and Chester were married.  The couple honeymooned that summer spotting and fighting fires at the Elk Summit lookout on the South Fork of the Clearwater River, in northern Idaho. 
     In the fall of 1952 Rosemary moved with Chester to Los Angeles, where he resumed graduate studies at the University of Southern California and she taught in the L.A. public schools.  In 1955 they followed Chester's academic career to Ashland and Granville, Ohio; and in 1960 they moved again with three young children to Ellensburg, WA and an appointment for Chester at Central Washington State College.  In that watershed year they also commenced forty-four continuous years of summer employment in Yellowstone National Park where Rosemary miraculously kept young children from accidentally killing themselves and, in later years, worked at Menzel's Travel in West Yellowstone. 
     Upon retirement, Rosemary and Chester moved to Portland, Oregon in 2006, where she resided with him until her death. 
     Rosemary possessed prodigious musical and leadership abilities.  Self-taught and playing by ear, she was the pianist at Oakville Methodist Church from her late grade-school years until she went to college.  She spontaneously produced music and musicians for programs in all venues from glee club to church.  She was a gifted, sensitive accompanist and boundless source of musical energy for any situation, especially musical services in the many churches she served.  Moreover, Rosemary completely dedicated her life to others.  Her remarkable volunteerism in her younger years and her long teaching career prefigured five decades of sustained and tireless community service in Ellensburg, including working with the United Presbyterian Women, the Kittitas County Clothing Center, the County Food Bank, Christmas Baskets for needy families with Loaves and Fishes, the American Association of University Women, and Danforth Associates Northwest, in addition to serving as a Director on
 the board of the Ellensburg School District.  Through all this Rosemary systematically set aside her own academic and other aspirations to support her family through decades of migratory madness between Yellowstone and Ellensburg.  She loved her children and grandchildren in all ways and beyond measure.
     Rosemary is survived by her grandchildren: Hannah and David Conwell and Suzanne and James Keller; and by her three children and their spouses: Kent and Teresa Keller of Palouse, Washington, Mark Keller and Sondra Storm, and Kristen and Bill Conwell of Portland, Oregon.  She was preceded in death by her parents, and by all five of her siblings: Francis, Emma, Andrew, and their spouses, and twins Elsie and Elzie.
     Rosemary's life will be celebrated at a service at the Willamette View retirement community in Portland, Oregon at 4 PM on Saturday, September 3rd. Memorial contributions may be sent to the Heifer Project (P.O. Box 8058, Little Rock, AR 72203, www.heifer.org).