Judith Ann Rivera

Judith 'Judy' Ann Rivera (Smith), born on August 31, 1939, in Kaiser, West Virginia, passed away on July 31, 2024, at St. Clare's Hospital in Lakewood, WA.

Her father, James 'Jimmy' Smith, was an Army gunner whose plane was shot down over France in WWII. Right before he enlisted, he joined the Moose Lodge. Because of this, Judy and her two sisters, Louise and Wanda, were able to live at Mooseheart Child City outside of Chicago. Her mother, Wanda Hauser, visited often and even worked there for a while. Judy had fond memories and fantastic stories about growing up there and graduated second in her class. She was fortunate to be able to visit her father's grave outside Paris, in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. This was important and meant a lot to her.

Judy met and married her husband of 64 years, Jesus 'Jess' Rivera, in 1959. They were both in the Army and stationed at Walter Reed Hospital. They met when Judy was gathering bedpans from patients' rooms and had them stacked too high on the cart. The cart, of course, fell over and, as you can imagine, a mess was all over the floor. All coworkers disappeared except for Jess, who came from the ward across the hall to help her. This story perfectly exemplifies our parents. Mom was a bit carefree, and Dad was always there to have her back. As a family, we were able to travel the world through Jess's military career. While Dad worked, Mom took us to many neighboring countries from our home base in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. We were very fortunate that she was so fearless. She would even insist on attempting to speak each country's native language to people she met there--it didn't matter that many of them spoke English and she was "so embarrassing" to her kids. She wanted to show respect and represent Americans well. Though Judy and Jess experienced racism in the early years of their marriage, she remained entirely free from prejudice throughout her life. Mom had such a loving heart.

An avid learner and reader all her life, after her children were grown, she went to work as a library page at the Pierce County Library System's South Hill branch, retiring in 2009. She surprised herself and missed the work and her coworkers there. She enjoyed volunteering, and being a lifelong blood donor was important to her.

Judy loved her family very much, the arts (especially opera), sports (tennis, soccer, and the Seahawks), and games (board, card, and word). She was able to play Wordle in her head until very recently. She would sometimes attempt to cook -- "her" chili was infamous. Mom had a truly fantastic sense of humor and was a big fan of ice cream and naps.

When Jess died recently in October 2023, she mourned and missed him very much. Judy is survived by her younger sisters, Louise Anderson and Wanda Smith of Arizona; her children, Mike (Heike) Rivera, Josefa 'Josie' (Charley) Lough of Ohio, Maria (Sandra Jacobson) Rivera, Marc Rivera, and Anthony (Amanda) Rivera of California; and her grandchildren, Nick, Aisha, Tim, Shane (Ashley), Doug, Luke, Nikita, Chas, Charlie Mae, and Blake, as well as great-grandchildren Kadance, Melanie, Chloe, Liam, and Kenya.

She is greatly missed and still loved immensely by her family and friends. By the way, if Mom were reading this right now, she would be asking, "Who is 'She'?"

Judy will be buried with military honors at Tahoma National Cemetery on August 22, 2024, and will be interred there with Jesus.