Arloa Kay Ahrens Washburn

Arloa Kay Ahrens Washburn passed away peacefully on November 2, 2024 of natural causes. Her last days were filled with visits from loved ones and friends, and we are all so grateful for the time we had with her to reflect on the love and influence she had on each of us.
Grandma was born on March 16, 1936 in Mankato, Kansas to Howard & Vena Ahrens. Arloa and her sister Jan were cherished by their parents, and had a carefree childhood on their family dairy farm in Idaho. While Jan spent her time on her horse or helping in the house, Arloa loved to help her dad milk the cows, play the piano, read, and work on her schoolwork. She was a bright student, and especially loved having her mother as her teacher from sixth to eighth grade. She graduated as Salutatorian from Kuna High School in 1954.
At the age of 15, Grandma joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While she was always first to admit she joined more for the cute boys than for her testimony, she developed a deep and personal testimony and love of the gospel through a lifetime of attending and serving in the church.
Arloa met and started dating Gary P Washburn when she was 16 years old, and they later married on February 20, 1955 in her parents' home. They would eventually be sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple on July 6, 1958. Their first child, Douglas, was born in November 1955, and shortly after his birth they moved their small family to Cottage Grove, Oregon, where their daughter DeLanea was welcomed in September 1958.
Arloa held several positions of employment in car dealerships, doctors' offices, and an insurance agency as a bookkeeper and secretary, utilizing skills she learned at Boise Business College and Lane Community College. She was known for her sharp business acumen, attention to detail, and quiet leadership. Grandma and Grandpa owned a successful landscaping company, with each of them crediting their success to the other. Their legacy of generosity still impacts all who knew them.
It was in Cottage Grove that Arloa and Gary became very active in the church, and began many years of service in various callings and assignments. Grandma's favorite calling was always playing the piano – she loved worshiping through music, and had a great love for primary songs and the hymns she grew up with in the Methodist church. She also served as a seminary teacher, and later in life served two service missions with Grandpa – in Nassau, Bahamas and Donetsk, Ukraine. She said that her years as a missionary were some of the happiest of her life. She loved serving others, living in foreign countries, and working with the young missionaries, who became like family.
Grandma loved spending time in the cabin she built with Grandpa at Wallowa Lake, Oregon. She loved the slower pace of life, and spent many hours working on her family history while Grandpa went fishing. She had a great love of genealogy, and loved her ancestors – she knew generations of them by name, and lovingly anticipated the day when she would reunite with them on the other side of the veil. She was proud to publish several books of family history and share them with all of us, in hopes that our hearts would turn to our ancestors, as hers did. Looking through these books now holds deeper meaning, as they are her lasting legacy of love, sacrifice, and eternal families.
Arloa loved traveling, and was blessed to travel the world with Gary (her reluctant travel companion). Together they visited over 25 countries, and experienced many things that a farm-girl from Idaho could only dream of! She was a passionate Oregon Ducks football fan, and often knew more about the team than anyone else in the room. Her last good day was spent watching the Ducks beat Illinois, and eating a McDonald's hamburger – two of her favorite things!
Of all of the things she loved, however, Grandma loved us the most. Her family. It is her grandchildren that gave her the most joy, and we were so blessed to have her take such an active role in our lives. From sleepovers in the Blue Bedroom, poached eggs at the bar, trips to the drugstore, or running crossing the highway for an ice cream at Dairy Queen – she was the very best grandma when we were kids. She was always up for a shopping trip to JC Penney, a movie, or stopping into our jobs just to say hello. Then we grew up, and it became lunches at Chuck-a-Rama, football games, chicken and rice on Sundays, and card games at the cabin. No matter what phase of life we were in, we could all count on Grandma for a good laugh, a quick hug, and simple encouragement to keep doing great things. We know we were loved by her.
Grandma was a quiet and reserved person – she was content to let us all shine, and lovingly witness the many things we all did in her orbit. She happily went wherever Grandpa went, and supported him in every way. He was her sweetheart, and she looked forward to reuniting with him again.
In Grandma's life history, she summed up her life by saying, "The Lord has greatly blessed me with a great life, and I am thankful for my life and my testimony of the divinity of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and I know I am a child of God. I had good earthly parents, a good husband, good children, and good grandchildren. I have truly been blessed." We could not memorialize her any better.
Arloa is survived by her children, Douglas Washburn and DeLanea (Tim) Boss, seven grandchildren, and seventeen great-grandchildren.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the nurses, CNAs, staff, and administrators at the Charleston in Cedar Hills, for their loving and tender care of Arloa in her time there. Grandma truly felt like it was her home, and loved the friends she made there. We would also like to thank the nurses at A+ Home Health & Hospice for their compassion and support.
Graveside services for Arloa will be held on Friday, November 8, 2024 at 11:00 am at the Prairie Creek Cemetery, Joseph, Oregon.